By: Daniel Cook, Director of Athletics Communications & Digital Media
RIVERSIDE - The Lancers remain on a roll, winners of their last five games, and now boast a 12-1 record on the season and a 4-0 mark in the Western Athletic Conference. California Baptist remains on top of the conference standings both in terms of record and WAC Resume Seeding, with Grand Canyon closely trailing on both lists.
A sweep in WAC play last week and incredible efforts from both Chloe Webb and Khloe Lemon earned the duo their second sweep of WAC weekly awards this season. Webb earned her third WAC Player of the Week honor after averaging 21 ppg, 6.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 4.0 steals against Utah Valley and Seattle U. Lemon posted back-to-back career-high scoring efforts with 19 and 20 points, respectively.
TARLETON AT A GLANCE
The Texans enter the game at 4-8 on the year and 1-2 in WAC play. Tarleton is just 1-3 at home this year, with their lone victory coming against DIII opponent Howard Payne, 106-38, in the season opener on November 6. The Texans are hanging onto the eighth and final WAC postseason position in the WAC standings, with Seattle just a half-game behind them.
Freshman center Faith Acker is pacing the Texans with team-high averages in points (11.8) and rebounds (7.6). She's also led the team in two of their three Division I victories with 20 and 23 points against UTRGV and Texas Southern, respectively. Jakoriah Long has the ability to take over a game, posting double-figure scoring outputs six times this year, highlighted by a 34-point effort against McNeese on December 16.
ABILENE CHRISTIAN AT A GLANCE
ACU starts the week at 6-6 overall with a 2-1 WAC record, but will host Grand Canyon before the Lancers arrive. The Wildcats and Lancers have one common opponent on the year so far, also falling the Louisiana Tech as part of the WAC/CUSA slate, 66-49. ACU is 0-2 against opponents with NET rankings in the top-100, falling 77-60 to TCU (#36) and 69-58 to Rice (#100).
ACU has a quartet of double-digit scorers and is led by Payton Hull, who puts up 14.8 points per game. Hull is an efficient scorer, shooting at a 45.9% clip from the field, and doing so in just 26 minutes of action per game. Bella Earle is the teams second-leading scorer at 11.8 per game and dominates the glass with 8.1 rebounds per game, the third best mark in the WAC.
