UNO Women’s Hoops opens Southland play with tough 80-70 loss at Abilene Christian

Brown and Woods shine bright in defeat

ABILENE, Texas – The University of New Orleans received outstanding performances from Randi Brown and Shania Woods Thursday afternoon but the Privateers could not overcome the long-range shooting of Abilene Christian University, falling to the Wildcats 80-70 at Moody Coliseum. The Southland Conference opener featured Brown led all players with 27 points while S. Woods posted 14 points for her fifth consecutive double-digit outing.

Abilene Christian hit 11-of-27 from 3-point range for a 40.7 percentage. They outrebounded the Privateers 40 to 29.

New Orleans falls to 4-8, 0-1 in Southland Conference play while Abilene Christian moves to 7-4 and 1-0.

FIRST QUARTER
The Privateers led by eight (10-2) thanks to Shania Woods with eight points, two rebounds, one block and a steal. Abilene Christian grabbed its first lead at 16-14 with six seconds to go on a Dominique Golightly 3-pointer. The period ended with the Wildcats up 16-14.

SECOND QUARTER
The first half closed with Abilene Christian ahead 38-30. After consecutive baskets by sophomore Whitley Larry tied the game at 23-23, the Wildcats went on a 9-0 run midway through the quarter to take a 32-23 edge, capped by a Josie Larson 3-pointer. ACU extended the lead to 11 late in the period but Brown’s three freebies cut the deficit to single digits.

Brown sat during the second period after getting two fouls and finished the half with eight points. Five Privateers had two fouls at the break. Shania Woods led New Orleans in scoring in the first half with 10. UNO battled the Southland’s best rebounding team on the boards with ACU holding a 23-18 advantage.

THIRD QUARTER
At the end of the third period, ACU increased the lead to 10 (57-47) but UNO made a move in the early stages of the second half.

The Privateers went on an 8-0 run on a jumper by Kayla Mundy, a layup and a jumper by sophomore Jada Swafford and free throws by Shania Woods to make it 40-38 ACU. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Larson and Golightly opened the lead to six at 46-40.

A Larson 3-pointer capped a 13-2 ACU run making it 53-40 with 3:01 to go. Sarah Williamson knocked down a jumper at the buzzer to give the home team a 57-47 lead at the end of the third quarter.

New Orleans went the final 6:17 of the period without a basket.

FOURTH QUARTER
Despite 15 points in the fourth quarter by Brown, the Privateers cut the lead to 7 at 61-54 on a Brown 3-pointer with 2:51 to go. New Orleans was 8-of-14 from the field in the period for 57.1 percent, 3-of-5 (60.0) from behind the 3-point arch and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. The Wildcats countered that with 72 percent shooting from the field in the quarter (8-of-11).

BY THE NUMBERS
The Privateers were deadly from the free throw line going 20-of-22 (90.9). Brown was 11-of-11 and Shania Woods was 6-of-6.

After canning 27 points against Abilene Christian, Brown needs 21 points to surpass Carvie Upshaw as the second leading scorer in New Orleans basketball history. Upshaw (1985-89) finished her career with 1,759 points. Former Harlem Globetrotter Sandra Hodge (1980-84) leads all career scorers with 2,860.

Mundy had another solid day with 12 points, three rebounds, four assists and a steal.

Swafford had six points, five rebounds and an assist off the bench in 15 minutes of action before leaving the game in the third quarter due to injury. Larry chipped in with four points and five rebounds

After playing all 40 minutes in the win over Texas Southern, Shania Woods followed up with 35 Minutes against ACU.

The Wildcats had five players in double figures, led by Dominique Golightly, Breanna Wright and Taudenciah Oluoch all with 14 points.

UP NEXT
Up next for the Privateers, the Huskies of Houston Baptist University, Saturday, December 30 at Lakefront Arena. Tipoff is 2 p. m.

Be sure to follow @UNOPrivateers on Twitter, @UNOPrivateers on Instagram, like /UNOPrivateers on Facebook and subscribe to the PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.