ABILENE, Texas — It'll be a clash of champions on ESPN3 on Saturday when the 2016 Southland Conference tournament and regular-season champions lock up at 2:00pm as the Sugar Bears visit Abilene Christian for the first of two meetings this season.
Last season, the Wildcats defeated the Sugar Bears 61-49 in Conway in the conference opener en route to a 17-1 Southland record and the league's regular season title, while the Sugar Bears would go on to a 16-2 mark and win the league's conference tournament earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.
The teams were picked to again be at the top of the conference race, with the Wildcats picked to repeat in the league's preseason polls by both the coaches and sports information directors, with Central Arkansas selected second in each.
The Wildcats are off to a 2-0 start in Southland play this season, defeating Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans by an average of 19 points to improve their overall record to 8-6 – which includes losses to Missouri, Texas A&M, Baylor and Wichita State, along with a pair of three-point losses at UTSA and to UMKC in overtime.
The Sugar Bears (9-3, 1-1 Southland) are coming off a 76-43 rout of Northwestern State on Monday, their most lopsided Southland win since beating the Lady Demons by 41 in 2012. Saturday's game will be the first road game of the conference season for the Sugar Bears, who were a perfect 9-0 on the road in Southland games last season. Their last Southland loss away from the Farris Center came on March 7, 2015, when they fell 72-68 at McNeese.
To extend that streak to 10 games, the Sugar Bears will have to do so against a Wildcat team that has won its last 13 Southland home games and features 4 of the 10 preseason Southland All-Conference selections, with the senior quartet of Alexis Mason, Sydney Shelstead and Lizzy and Suzzy Dimba.
Led by Shelstead's 13.7 points per game, those four top the Wildcats in scoring – averaging 45.7 of ACU's 68.9 points per game. Mason is second at 12.9, with Suzzy Dimba at 10.1 and Lizzy Dimba at 9.0 per contest. The 6-foot-1 Shelstead is also among the league's rebounding leaders, tied for third at 8.9 per game.
In the first two conference games, Shelstead has averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds; Suzzy Dimba 16 points and 7.5 rebounds; and Lizzy Dimba 14 points and 12 rebounds.
With Mason and the Sugar Bears'
Maggie Proffitt, Saturday's game will feature two of the most prolific 3-point shooters in Southland Conference history, as Mason ranks 3rd in league history with 232 3-pointers made while Proffitt is 6th at 215, three away from moving into a tie for 4th.
Both have had their struggles this season, with Proffitt shooting 28.6 percent from beyond the arc (20 of 70), and Mason at just 26.4 percent (19 of 72), though both are still second on their respective teams in scoring with Proffitt averaging 13.1 per game and Mason 12.9.
In three career games against ACU, Sugar Bear senior
Brianna Mullins has averaged 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.7 steals per game, including a 25-point game as a freshman in 2014 – still her career high.
Since becoming eligible six games ago following her transfer year,
Kierra Jordan has paced the Sugar Bear scoring attack, averaging 14.5 points on 58.3 percent shooting, while getting 6.5 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per game.
Taylor Baudoin (14.4) trails only Jordan (18.3) among Sugar Bears in efficiency rating, as she has averaged 11.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and a steal and block per game while shooting 57.8 percent from the field and 94.1 percent at the free throw line.
Saturday's game kicks off a three-game road swing for the Sugar Bears, who will travel to Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next week before returning home to face McNeese in the Farris Center on Jan. 18.
