CONWAY -- A late miscue proved costly for Central Arkansas on Wednesday as the Sugar Bears fell 55-50 to Stephen F. Austin in the Farris Center.
After calling a timeout trailing by three with 11 seconds to play to advance the ball to the frontcourt, the Sugar Bears' ensuing in-bounds pass went untouched as it skipped across the court and out of bounds, returning possession to the Ladyjacks.
SFA's Stevi Parker hit both of her free throws with 9 seconds remaining to push the Ladyjacks' (22-4, 14-1 Southland Conference) lead to five and put away the Sugar Bears (18-8, 11-4), who would misfire on a pair of free throws and hurried field goal attempt in the final seconds.
The 'Jacks outscored the Sugar Bears by seven at the free throw line, making 19 of 26, 73.1 percent, while the Sugar Bears were 12 of 19, 63.2 percent. Just as they did in their victory in the season's first meeting in Nacogdoches, the 'Jacks beat the Sugar Bears on the offensive glass -- getting 14 to UCA's 11, and scoring 10 second-chance points.
Kamry Orr led UCA with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and going 8-for-11 at the free throw line, also grabbing 6 rebounds and registering 3 assists in 33 minutes. She would be the only Sugar Bear to finish in double figures, with Taylor Baudoin scoring 8 on 4-of-14 shooting while getting 6 rebounds and Kierra Jordan going for 6 and 7. Antonija Bozic was 2-of-5 from 3-point range for 6 points, with her and Orr each knocking down a pair from long range as the Sugar Bears were 4-of-16.
Parker had 18 points and 9 rebounds to lead the 'Jacks, with Chanell Hayes adding 11 and 9.
The loss drops the Sugar Bears three games behind SFA for 2nd place in the Southland standings with three games to play, eliminating the possibility of a double bye to the semifinals of the Southland tournament. Sitting in third with New Orleans (14-13, 10-6) fourth, the Sugar Bears have a two-game lead in the fight for the bye that comes with those two seeds -- with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (16-10, 9-6) and Abilene Christian (15-10, 9-6) in a tie for fifth.
The Sugar Bears will make their final road swing of the season beginning Saturday at Abilene Christian before heading to Sam Houston State (4-21, 1-15) next Wednesday. They return to the Farris Center for the regular-season finale against Northwestern State (7-19, 2-13) on March 3.
Men
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- A huge first-half run by Stephen F. Austin was the undoing of the Central Arkansas Bears on Wednesday night in a 97-62 loss in Southland Conference action at Johnson Coliseum.
The third-place Lumberjacks (23-5, 12-3) evened the season series with the victory after Central Arkansas (13-15, 7-8) won the first meeting 100-92 in Conway. Their past three meetings had been decided by an average of five points, one of those in overtime, but the long scoring drought in the first half by the Bears was the difference Wednesday as Central Arkansas was held to its lowest scoring output of the season.
The Bears got two quick 3-pointers by senior Mathieu Kamba and freshman Matthew Mondesir on their first two possessions of the game, forcing a quick timeout. Senior Jordan Howard added another for a 9-2 UCA lead just two minutes into the game.
The lead reached 14-7 before the Lumberjacks awoke. When they did, they put together an 18-0 run, holding UCA scoreless for six minutes and ran out to a 25-14 lead at the 9:00 mark. Howard broke the drought with a free throw at the 5:30 mark but the Lumberjacks continued their run and ended the half with a 49-30 lead.
SFA connected on six three-pointers in the first half and shot 54.1 percent overall. UCA, on the other hand, hit just 30 percent overall and had five 3-pointers, but also had nine turnovers, allowing the Lumberjacks to score 14 points off the miscues.
"We were just really poor tonight," said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "The only thing that I could right now be halfway positive about is before I could get to the locker room, they were already talking it out, and in a good way. There was no hollering and screaming at each other. They are talking about reflecting and how we have guys that have to reach deeper.
"When it gets difficult, you have to fight through all that stuff. I haven't even addressed them yet. They were conducting it and I told my staff to leave them alone. Let them talk through it. We know we're not the team we saw tonight. It was embarrassing and I'm very disappointed with the outcome."
The Lumberjacks, still in the running for a possible top seed at the Southland Conference Tournament, made 11 3-pointers and shot 45,8 percent from the arc. UCA had connected 16 times in the first meeting, with Howard and junior Thatch Unruh combining to go 13 of 17 and scoring 43 and 28 points, respectively. On Wednesday, UCA finished with just six threes and shot poorly from the perimeter for the third consecutive game, hitting at a 25-percent clip.
"You usually have one of these (games) a year," said Pennell, "you honestly do. I'm a little surprised that it hadn't happened until now. These things just happen. You know, we've done it to a few teams, maybe not to this extent. I thought the biggest thing was, I saw a little bit of give up tonight, and that bothered me, it bothered me a lot.
"You know, we just have to do some soul searching right now and figure out if we want to keep playing, We're going to have to get better at a couple of things. Our defensive transition...we talked about that all week. When you don't run back, there's something wrong with that, especially when you know that's the strength of a team. I honestly thought in the first half, when we got them into the half court, we played pretty good defense."
Pennell went to his bench almost exclusively for the final eight minutes of the game. Redshirt freshman Jared Chatham tied his career high with eight points as UCA finished wiht 23 points off the bench.
"Down the stretch, there was no need to play Mathieu and Jordan heavy minutes with the game out of hand. And we have another one on Saturday," Pennel said. "So we played some guys who haven't been in there in awhile, and that was good for them to get an opportunity. And some of them played quite well.
"I thought Jared (Chatham) looked pretty good. He's going to be a good player. He just needs some more experience."
UCA continues its road trip on Saturday afternoon at Abilene Christian (15-13, 7-8). Game time is 4 p.m. from Moody Coliseum.
The Bears will play their final two regular-season games at home on Feb. 28 against Sam Houston State (18-11, 12-4) and March 3 against Northwestern State (4-22, 1-14).
Sports on 02/23/2018