Bears lose back-to-back games

Conway —UCA’s LeMar Phillips went off for 30 points. But he was outdone by Kevin Weybright’s 34 point outing for Christian Brothers.

After Weybright gave CBU a three point lead, he missed his second free throw. During the scramble for the loose ball, Daryl Jones came up with the ball while laying flat on his stomach. Instinct took over and he called timeout, problem was that UCA had just used it final timeout.

Weybright made three more free throws down the stretch to seal the Bucs 82-79 win.

"[The technical foul] is unfortunate," head coach Rand Chappell said. "There’s a lot going on in your mind at that time."

After Weybright made just one of the free throws following the technical foul, the Bears were down four 80-76 with just 10 seconds remaining. Phillips drained a three to pull within one.

The Bears almost stole the ensuing inbound pass, but it fell out of bounds. Weybright was fouled immediately on the second inbound attempt. He made both and Aubrey Bruner’s circus three at the buzzer bounced off the rim and fell harmlessly to the floor.

"The game’s not really about offense," Chappell said. "It ends up being about defense more times than not. I think that’s were we get confused."

The Bears shot a blistering 67% from behind the arc and 51% for the game. Not to be outdone, CBU finished 53% from the floor.

Weybright only missed two shots the entire game and finished 7-of-9 from the free throw line.

"It seemed to me that Kevin Weybright put on a show," Chappell said.

"LeMar played hard. Him and Weybright went head-to-head."

The Bears actually took a one point lead into halftime after starting the game on an 8-0 run. They never lost the lead during the half.

The second half was a battle back-and-forth with four ties and 17 lead changes.

"Obviously they deserve a lot of credit for the way they played offensively," Chappell said. "But you’ve got to be able get stops at some point. We just never got them."

Sugar Bears make it three in a row

Conway —The Sugar Bears picked up their third consecutive win – all three by double-figures – with a comfortable 83-69 win over Christian Brothers University Monday night at the Farris Center.

The win gives UCA the season sweep over the Lady Buccaneers. they won the first meeting by eight, 73-65.

The Sugar Bears looked sharp early, scoring seven point in the first two minutes, while CBU had only attempted and missed two shots of their own.

The Lady Bucs were down 6-16 when they made a run to get back in it. With the help of three 3-pointers and good free throw shooting, CBU tied the game at 23-23.

"We just weren’t quite clicking the first ten minutes of the ballgame," head coach Checola Seals-Horton said, "but we were able to get settled down and cause some good things happen."

UCA then took control of the game by taking control of the rebounds. The Sugar Bears pounded the glass and grabbed 11 rebounds, to CBU’s three, the final 7:23 of the half. Four of those were offensive rebounds that led to eight second-chance points, leading to a seven point halftime lead for the Sugar Bear, 40-33.

But the Lady Bucs made a second half run and took their only lead of the game 46-44. But the lead only lasted 12 seconds as Lauren Williams scored to tie it. Williams had a great night in the state sheet. She shot 66%, scored 14 points, and led the team with three steals.

"When we were up by ten and then you look up and it’s tied at 44, and I’m like what happened," Seals said. "I must have fell asleep during that little stretch because I didn’t remember it. "

Again going back to the boards, UCA out rebounded CBU by eight the rest of the way. They also went on an offensive run and never looked back.

But Seals credits the run on a little luck and defense.

"[CBU head coach Scott Groninger] called time out with the score tied at 44," Seals said. "I appreciate that. We went inside three times to the post and we just didn’t get anything out of it [before the timeout].

"So, we came back out and made a few adjustments personel-wise. And then we got back on a roll again. Defense turned up, got a couple of turnovers. Point guards always doing what they normally do."

The Sugar Bears got extraordinarily hot from the field. They only missed one of their next 14 attempts. The run included four consecutive baskets for the game’s leading scorer Renita Dobbins.

"She read the plays. She read the defense," Seals said. "The defense was trying to go underneath so she was able to capitalize on that."

Dobbins finished with 17 points and also a team-high six assists. Randle finished well below her scoring average with just 14 points, but she was one of five Sugar Bears to finish in double figures. And the Sugar Bears were playing without key role players due to injuries.

Allyson Sample is out three weeks with a foot injury and defensive speicalist Mariesha Piggee sat out after being injured in Thursday night’s game against Southern Arkansas.

"We knew we had to counteract that," Seals said.

"I think it was a good game for us coming back considering that we had to make some adjustments and we had some injuries that we weren’t expecting. Ang our kids fought threw and battled. "

Bears escape with too close for comfort win

Conway —Make it two games in a row now that the Bears play 10 solid minutes to start the second half and then do their best to make the game a nail-biter at the end.

UCA lost a 10-point lead against Delta State and finished with a loss. But Thursday night an 11-point lead was exactly what they needed to hold off Arkansas-Monticello and leave the Farris Center with a 53-54 win.

The Boll Weevils fought back into the game by increasing the defensive pressure.

"They switched to their halfcourt trap," head coach Rand Chappell said. "Anytime you see something for the first time it can be difficult."

UAM forced three turnovers which led to four points during a 19-10 run. The Bears lead had dwindled to two, 54-52, with 2:02 remaining.

Then one of the easiest shots in the game turned into the most difficult for UCA, missing five consecutive free throw attempts. Three of those were the front of one-and-one opportunities.

"Fred [Campbell] is a pretty high percentage free throw shooter, as is [Daryl Jones]," Chappell said, "but they just didn’t knock them down."

The Bears had several opportunities to extend it’s two-point lead but were held scoreless the final 2:02 of the game.

Still up two with just seven seconds remaining, UAM’s Mjumbe Williams drew a shooting-foul from Joey Cortez. Williams, though, only made one-of two.

Having used their final timeout, the Bears struggled to find a man open on the following inbounds attempt and were forced to throw the ball across the court into the hands of UCA’s Fernando Johnson and UAM’s Billy McDaniel. The ball popped out and into the open floor when Stephin Booth picked it up and raced toward the basket as time expired.

"[We] missed a ton of free throws at the end, which is disheartening, but it’s nice to have the victory," Chappell said.

In the second half, the Bears were perfect at the free throw line, five-of-five, before missing the final five attempts.

The Boll Weevil’s leading scorer entering the game, Nate Newell, was held to just six points on 2-for-14 shooting, 0-for-7 from three-point range.

"Aubrey [Bruner], Joey [Cortez], and Fred [Campbell] all guarded him at different times," Chappell said. "I thought they did a nice job there. I was proud of our guys for being that disciplined."

Sugar Bears cruise

Conway —The Sugar Bears went into their game against the Cotton Blossoms of Arkansas-Monticello with an 0-2 record on Thursdays at home in the GSC. Luckily for UCA this game was being played on Monday where they haven’t lost in the regular season. They kept that streak alive with a comfortable 76-57 win over UAM.

"It was a good game," head coach Checola Seals-Horton said. "Our kids did a good job of playing together."

With UAM leading 8-10, the Sugar Bears got a spark off the bench from Renita Dobbins.

The Sugar Bears tied the game when Dobbins made the first of many no-look passes and found Caronica Randle under the basket for the game-tying layup.

"[Dobbins] came ready to play," Seals said.

The Cotton Blossoms would never see the lead again.

Dobbins gave UCA a 12-10 lead with her first points of the game coming on a layup out of an inbounds play.

She then scored six of the Sugar Bears’ next eight points on a drive to the basket, a step-back jumper, and a steal that led to another layup.

Dobbins didn’t stop there. She didn’t make the basket, but her no-look pass to Allicia Kellogg – very similar to the pass above to Randle – put UCA up 22-13.

After the 10-10 tied, the Sugar Bears outscored UAM 24-11 the rest of the half and took a 34-21 lead to halftime.

The second half was – pardon the pun – more of the same.

The Blossoms cut the lead to 10 at one point, but the Sugar Bears finally showed off their shooting touch from the floor, shooting 57.6% in the second half.

Caronica Randle was just 1-for-7 for six points in the first half, but followed that up with 5-for-7 shooting in the second and finished with 16 points, almost six points under her average.

The Sugar Bears shot just 1-for 13 from the three point line in the game, but had 12 more rebounds.

"We told our kids we’ve got to get boards," Seals said. "We knew if we controlled that it would be the difference in the game."

With just over three minutes left, Seals subbed in every available player on the UCA bench and all but one scored in the game.

"We knew tempo-wise, they weren’t going to be able to keep up," Seals said. "I’ll take 76 points like this anytime."

UCA broke their two-game home losing streak with the win.

"We needed a home win, and we knew it.

Bears needed ‘A’ effort, didn’t make the grade

Conway —The Bears were outscored 18-2 in the final 7:09 of the game and Delta State left the Farris Center with a 64-58 win Thursday night.

"We’ve got to do a better job executing down the stretch," head coach Rand Chappell said.

The Bears led by three at the half and with just over seven minutes remaining were up 10, 56-46. But the Bears committed five turnovers before they would make their next shot.

DSU took advantage and scored 13 consecutive point to take 59-56 lead they would not give up.

"I was really proud of the way our team played," Chappell said. "I told our guys that it was probably one of our better efforts as far as toughness and determination for about 30-something minutes. It’s a shame to let it slip away. We had a golden opportunity to get a big win, and we just let it slip through our fingers."

UCA was down just three with 1:40 remaining, but they were held scoreless the last 2:13 of the game.

"We couldn’t hold them down the stretch."

The final stats were almost complete opposite from the Sugar Bears game. The men finished with an even 49 for field goal percentage and shot 44% from 3-point range. Where the women excellelled, the free throw line, the men struggled, shooting just 33%.

The Bears got off to a crowd-pleasing start. The first points of the game came on a back-door alleyoop to Fernando Johnson.

Johnson sank another and then LeMar Phillips gave UCA a 6-0 lead with his bucket in the lane.

DSU took its first lead at 21-18.

Down 27-26, Joey Cortez hit a desperation three as the shot clock buzzed, putting the Bears up two.

Freddie Campbell scored the last points of the half on another 3-pointer.

The Bears actually shot better from beyond the 3-point line than beyond it in the first half, an amazing 62.5% behind the arc.

The Statesmen came out with a flurry of baskets to start the second half. Two free throws from guard Travis DeGroot put DSU in front by five, 38-33.

Then, UCA went on a run of it’s own, outscoring DSU 19-6 over the next 9:21.

Unfortunately for the Bears, the final eight minutes belonged to the Statesmen.

"We needed to play an ‘A’ game, and I think we played a ‘B’ game and didn’t quite get it done."

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DSU steals inbounds passes and win

Conway —About the only shot the Sugar Bears could make was from half court, but even that shot left the University of Central Arkansas with a two point defeat, 50-52, to Delta State University Thursday night at the Farris Center.

The trouble, though, at the end of the game wasn’t making shots, it was simply getting the ball inbounds. The Sugar Bears made three errant passes in the last 24 seconds of the game, allowing Delta State to expand their 48-47 lead to 52-47.

"We just didn’t take care of the basketball," head coach Checola Seals-Horton said. "We had kids that were open. Delta did a great job of defending the inbound play."

Lauren Williams made the half court shot at the buzzer to set the final score.

UCA shot just 35% in the second half, but that was a five percent increase over the first half. The same team that shot so poor from the floor was 81% from the free throw line.

The Sugar Bear’s only first half lead was 6-5 just four minutes into the game.

After being down by as many as six points, 20-14, UCA fought back.

"We never really felt like the game was going to be out of reach," Seals said.

On a fast break after a DSU turnover, Renita Dobbins made a behind-the-back pass to Caronica Randle who missed the shot but was fouled. She was able to make both free throws to cut the lead to two.

UCA forced another of DSU’s 12 first-half turnovers to start another run-out where Piggee found Shannon Oden streaking to the basket for another layup and to again cut DSU’s lead back to two.

DSU made a jumper at the end of the half for a 26-23 halftime lead. Randle went into the break with 11 points, the only player for either team in double-digits.

The second half included 10 lead changes.

Strangely, DSU did not make a single trip to the free throw line in the first half, but that’s where they won the game in the last 26 seconds. DSU made six of eight to seal it.

"We did a good job in the first half of not sending them to the free throw line," Seals said. In the second half we reversed that mess and got them to the free throw line. They stepped up and made their free throws."

UCA was outrebounded 39-24 but made up for it with good defense, forcing 22 turnovers.

Brittany Greer scored eight second half points, but due to foul trouble, Randle was held to just four points in 11 minutes.

"We were glad [Greer] stepped up in the second half," Seals said.

"We’ve just got to regoup and get ready for Monticello on Monday. There’s nothing you can do at this point. Look at where you made your mistakes and then make the adjustments."

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