Langstaff's big night powers Abilene Christian past WAC leader Southern Utah in OT
Maleeah Langstaff was on fire Thursday night, and the Abilene Christian women’s basketball team needed every point to burn down Southern Utah 89-83 in overtime at Moody Coliseum.
Langstaff, a 5-foot-11 grad transfer from Northeastern State, scored a career-high 34 points as the Wildcats dealt the front-running team in the Western Athletic Conference only its second league loss.
“Mal was pretty impressive,” ACU coach Julie Goodenough said. “I thought she did a good reading the defense, (deciding) whether she needed to shoot or drive all the way in for a layup.”
Langstaff’s career night is a program record since the school made the leap to DI the 2013-14 season.
Dominique Golightly had the previous DI best – 33 points in an 88-62 victory over Stephen F. Austin on March 3, 2020, at Moody Coliseum.
Langstaff credited the big night to the extra time she spent shooting in the gym earlier in the week.
“It felt really good,” Lanstaff said. “I have good teammates, Hampton (Williams) and Reagan (Fox), staying after practice almost every single day this week to get my rebound. Just a lot of confidence went into it. Everything felt good.
"Even the misses felt good. I was like, ‘The next one, the next one.’ I just kept telling myself I could do this.”
Langstaff hit 14-of-21 shots from the field, including 3-of-8 3-point goals, in 42 minutes. The 14 field goals also is a single-game DI program record.
Aspen Thornton followed with 17 points for ACU (13-14 overall, 7-9 WAC), while Addison Martin had 13 and nine rebounds. Madi Miller had nine points, and Bella Earle had seven and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Cherita Daugherty and Tomekia Whitman led the Thunderbirds (17-9, 13-2) with 18 points each. Whitman also had 10 rebounds. Samantha Johnston had 17 points, while Lizzy Williamson and Daylani Ballena had 12 and 10, respectively, as the T-Birds had their four-game win streak snapped.
Weathering the storm
ACU won the game, despite blowing a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The T-Birds opened the fourth with a 15-2 run to make it a one-point game as the shots stopped falling for the Wildcats. Johnston’s 3-point goal capped the run, making it a one-point game (62-61) with 6:53 left in regulation.
“They just sat in a zone,” Goodenough said. “It was almost like they were daring us to continue shooting 3s. Man, we had some great looks. I mean, no one around. We missed shots, and they immediately went down and scored.”
Southern Utah finally tied the game at 68, and the T-Birds took the lead at 68-66.
Goodenough said her team didn’t panic.
“Our team was real confident throughout the course of the game,” she said. “As their head coach, I felt like, ‘We’ve got this. We’ve got this.’ I’m just proud of their perseverance. No one got their head down. No one got too frustrated or anything like that. They just kept chopping wood, getting after it.”
Southern Utah led 72-70 with 2:55 left, but Langstaff sparked a 4-0 run – the last a jumper in the paint – giving the Wildcats a 74-72 lead with 1:48 to go.
Ballena missed a trey at the other end, but Whitman got the rebound and Williamson’s layup tied the game at 74 with 1:17 remaining. Each team missed a shot to send the game into OT.
Fast start in OT
Langstaff’s big night gave her teammates confidence, too, especially in overtime.
“She pulled me aside and said the next one is going in whenever I was shooting my 3s,” Earle said. “The next thing you know, it went in.”
That next one was Earle’s trey to start overtime, and Langstaff followed a T-Bird basket with a layup to start a 7-0 ACU run.
The Wildcats outscored the T-Birds 15-9 in overtime.
Langstaff wasn’t surprised with Southern Utah’s fourth-quarter comeback – or her team’s big finish.
“They weren’t done,” Langstaff said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the conference for a reason. They’re not going to just bow down and let us have it.
“Seeing them make a run, we’re like, ‘OK, we’re calm. We’re going to make a run, and we’re going to make the last run.’ We knew this was our game to win, and we kept fighting.”
Big on the boards
Southern Utah is one of the tallest teams in the WAC with 6-foot-5 Williamson and 6-3 Jensen. Little wonder the T-Birds are No. 21 in the country with a WAC-best 42.1 rebounds per game. Williamson is tied for 33rd nationally with 257 total.
Yet the Wildcats, whose tallest player is 6-2 Raycheal Harjo, outrebounded the T-Birds 48-43.
“That was a big key for us,” said Goodenough, whose team averages 36.6 rebounds. “Everyone on the floor had to get involved in rebounding. I thought that was a very significant stat for us, just the way the guards got involved with rebounding.”
The 5-9 Earle, who had three more boards than anyone, gave a lot of the credit to Martin, a 6-0 redshirt freshman.
“We knew they had some big trees,” Earle said. “We told Addie that if she boxes out the big girl, we’ll go get the rebounds for her. So, Addie took on that role. She knew she might not get a lot of rebounds, but she did her job perfectly. We each did our jobs together and played as a team and trusted each other.”
Big boost for ’Cats
It was ACU’s biggest win since joining the WAC last season, and it might their biggest regular-season victory since taking down SFA in 2020.
“It means a lot to us to come in and beat the No. 1 team in the WAC,” Earle said. “I don’t think anyone believed in us and had faith in us. We came in thinking this is our opportunity to show people and get that underdog win.”
It was a much-needed win for an ACU team that has only won three of its past nine games and sits in the bottom half of the league standings.
“We just need to get some momentum and confidence going before we head to the conference tournament,” Goodenough said.
ACU plays Sam Houston on Tuesday in Huntsville before playing Seattle in the regular-season finale March 2 at Moody.
Sam Houston is seventh in the WAC, two games ahead of ACU in the loss column. Seattle is tied with Texas-Rio Grande Valley for 10th.
“Next week is really big,” Goodenough said. “I thought tonight was a real statement for us playing really good basketball. We want to continue that in the next couple of games before we head to the tournament.”
WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
ACU 89, Southern Utah 83
Southern Utah … 18 … 11 … 17 … 28 … 9 – 83
Abilene Christian … 19 … 12 … 29 … 14 … 15 – 89
SOUTHERN UTAH – Megan Jensen 4-5 0-0 8, Lizzy Williamson 6-11 0-0 12, Daylani Ballena 4-10 0-0 10, Cherita Daugherty 8-19 2-5 18, Samantha Johnston 5-11 3-3 17, Tomekia Whitman 6-16 4-6 18, Alexa Lord 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-73 9-14 83.
ABILENE CHRISTIAN – Maleeah Langstaff 14-21 3-5 34, Addison Martin 6-13 1-2 13, Aspen Thornton 6-17 4-5 17, Bella Earle 2-6 2-4 7, Madi Miller 3-12 0-0 9, Claire Graham 1-4 2-2 5, Zoe Jackson 0-3 0-0 0, Raychael Harjo 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 34-80 12-16 89.
3-Point Goals – SU 8-28 (Jensen 0-1, Ballena 2-5, Daugherty 0-4, Johnston 4-10, Whitman 2-8), ACU 9-36 (Langstaff 3-8, Thornton 1-6, Earle 1-4, Miller 3-10, Graham 1-3, Jackson 0-3, Harjo 0-2). Rebounds – SU 43 (Whitman 10), ACU 48 (Earle 13). Assists – SU 18 (Daugherty 6), ACU 16 (Thornton 7). Total Fouls – SU 15, ACU 14. Fouled Out – SU: Ballena; ACU: None. Technical Fouls – None.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene Christian upends Southern Utah in WAC women's basketball game
