SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word women's basketball team put up a fight against Southland Conference rival Abilene Christian University, but fell short, 86-71 on Saturday at the McDermott Center.

Despite losing by 15 points, the game was very close throughout the contest. The Cardinals (5-12, 2-4) kept the game very close and trailed by five points with eight minutes left in the game after a three-pointer by Aricka Adams (Round Rock/Round Rock HS).

The Wildcats (16-2, 7-0) used a number of clutch threes to put the Cardinals away and also benefitted from a few breaks.  The Cardinals came close to causing a turnover on four occasions where they knocked the ball away only for it to fall in the hands of an ACU player for an easy bucket.

Alexis Mason hurt the Cardinals with four three-pointers and ended up shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 8-of-13 from the freethrow line for a total of 26 points to lead the Wildcats.  She was not the only Wildcat shooting well from beyond the arc.  Whitney West sunk three three-pointers and scored 17 points in the team's 12^th straight win.

The Cardinals trailed by five in the fourth quarter, but the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run to basically put the game away.  Two UIW players fouled out in the last three minutes and they could not overcome the 22 made freethrows by the Wildcats in 36 attempts.

As a team, the Cardinals shot 44.8 percent from the field, made 5-of-19 from three-point range and shot 14-of-18 from the charity stripe.  Quincy Baker (Houston/Klein HS) had a strong performance with 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench.  She was 6-of-7 from the field and 3-of-4 from the foul line.  Adams led the scoring with 18 points and also added two assists and three steals. Brianna Williams (Wylie/Mesquite HS) scored 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting.  UIW had six fewer rebounds than ACU, but forced four more turnovers.

The Wildcats shot 54.9 percent from the field and 44.4 from beyond the arc. Lizzy Dimba and Sydney Shelstead added 15 and 14 points, respectively while Dimba collected 10 rebounds for a double-double.  Mason chipped in with a team high four steals on the defensive end.

The Cardinals outscored the Wildcats 18-15 in the third quarter and gave themselves a chance, but the fourth quarter did not go their way. They were outscored 27-19 and fell short at upsetting the number one team in the Southland Conference and also had their two-game winning streak snapped.

The Cardinals will look to get back on track when they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 6 p.m.  
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