LAKE CHARLES— McNeese women's basketball returns to the court Wednesday, Jan. 8 to host Abilene Christian, the reigning Southland Conference champion and the preseason pick in this year's conference poll.
 
The game can be heard on the McNeese Radio Network (1470/1290 AM and CajunRadio.com). and live stats will be provided. All links can be found on mcneesesports.com.
 
McNeese (3-9. 0-3 SLC), is coming off a 70-57 SLC home opening loss to Central Arkansas last Saturday. The Wildcats (11-1, 3-0 SLC) enter the game in second place in the league standings behind Sam Houston State (9-4, 4-0 SLC). ACU's only blemish of the season was a 68-65 loss at Oklahoma on Nov. 26.
 
ACU is the third conference opponent in the first four SLC games for the Cowgirls that was ranked in the top three in the preseason poll. Stephen F. Austin was ranked second and Sam Houston State was ranked third.
 
McNeese enters the game with the best three-point field goal shooting percent (46.4) in conference games. The Cowgirls have made 13 of their 28 attempts from behind the arc with Rayah Haynes (3 of 5) and Regan Bolton (7 of 17) combining for most of them.
 
Bolton enters the game as the Cowgirls leading scorer (10.2 ppg.) while Damilola Balogun leads with 8.1 rpg. Balogun ranks sixth in the league with 8.3 rpg. in conference games only.
 
The Cowgirls will look to slow down a potent ACU offense that boast the league's top two scorers in Dominique Golightly (20.3 ppg.) and Breanna Wright (18.0 ppg.). Golightly was named the SLC Player of the Week for the second time this season after scoring a career high 27 points and eight rebounds in their 78-72 win over Lamar last Saturday.
 
As a team, ACU's offense is second in the league (83.0 ppg.) behind Sam Houston State's 84.0 ppg.  
 
GAME INFORMATION
OPPONENT: Abilene Christian
GAME DATE/TIME: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 6:30 p.m.
GAME SITE: H&HP Complex
2019-20 RECORDS: McNeese (3-9, 0-3 SLC); ACU (11-1, 3-0 SLC)
RADIO: Cajun Radio (1470/1290 AM) https://cajunradio.com/listen-live/
LIVE STATS: https://mcneesesports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
LIVE STREAM: https://mcneesesports.com/watch/?Live=1743&type=Live
 
 
QUICK HITS:
•- It's the second of three straight home games for the Cowgirls
•- ACU will be the third team ranked in the Top 3 in the SLC preseason poll. SFA was picked to finish second, Sam Houston State was picked third, and Abilene Christian was picked to repeat as champions.
•- Cowgirls were picked to finish 9^th in the preseason poll
•- Cowgirls enter the game with the best 3-point FG percent (46.4) in league games
•- Damilola Balogun ranks sixth in rebounds (8.3 rpg.) in SLC games.