Stats That Stand Out

It happened yet again. The Bears (6-14, 1-6) were in control of the game for 34 minutes, leading from the score 10-7 until the 6:37 mark in the second half when Southeastern Louisiana (12-7, 4-2) took a 56-55 lead. The lead went back and forth until a three-pointer by Terry Bryant put the Lions up three, a lead that would hold up and actually expand down the stretch.

The Lions outscored the Bears 12-4 the final four minutes of the game and won 74-66 in front of an announced crowd of 3,450 at the Farris Center.

The Bears just haven’t learned to protect a lead. It seems like each game they make the costly mistakes at the end of the game to put the opponent right back in the game. Once that momentum is gone, the Bears just fade away.

Sugar Bears out-woman Cowgirls

Sometimes you’ve just got to get the first one, and the second one comes a little easier.

Lamar came to Conway Thursday leading the Eastern Division of the conference and left with their first SLC loss and UCA’s first SLC win. Saturday night, the Sugar Bears faced the other end of the spectrum, winless in the conference McNeese State.

The result of the game was just how it looked like it would be on paper beforehand. The Sugar Bears coasted to a 85-73 win, but it didn’t look like it would be that way at the end of the first half when McNeese battled back to go to the lockerroom down just four, 36-32.

The start of the second half ended any hope that the Cowgirls had of upsetting the Sugar Bears.

Just eight seconds into the half, Caronica Randle scored the first of what would be a 21-4 run for UCA. Five different players scored during the run.

The Sugar Bears kept the Cowgirls at bay by shooting well from the field and the free throw line. Mariesha Piggee, on her 20th birthday, attempted a pair free throws on four straight possessions late in the game, missing only one.

• UCA blocked 10 shots, once blocked two shots in one McNeese possession.
• Caronica Randle, known for her offense, had four of those blocks on her own.
• Randle did score a game-high 21 points.
• Four Sugar Bears finished with double-figures in scoring.
• After outrebounding Lamar, UCA was outrebounded by 12 against the Cowgirls.
• Renita Dobbins may not have led the team in points, but she wasn’t far behind at 16.
• She did, however, lead the team in both assists (8) and rebounds (7). Pretty amazing for a player listed at 5’4”.
• Piggee had four of the team’s nine takeaways.
• Sharece Love, Shannon Oden, and Allyson Sample each finished with seven points.
• The Sugar Bears shot 55% from the floor and 80% from the free throw line.
  

Heart and hustle leads to first SLC win

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what your field goal percentage is. Sometimes missed shots just lead to offensive rebounds. That was the case Thursday night for the Sugar Bears as they defeated Lamar University 74-71 in overtime to pick up their first conference win on the season.

It was pretty obvious that – and I know it’s cliché – the Sugar Bears really just wanted it more.

There’s no stat for that, and there’s no stat for hustle. But there is a stat for rebounding. And that’s where UCA took advantage of their effort since the shots weren’t falling.

"There’s not a drill for rebounding," UCA head coach Checola Seals-Horton said. "Bottomline, rebounding comes down to heart. It’s how bad do you want it."

To say that the team crashed the boards would be an understatement. And to say that UCA was severely overmatched in the size department would be another.

The Sugar Bears battled their way to a +17 rebound margin. That led to the stat of the game – a 23-2 advantage in second chance points.

Enough about the stats, the game was an exciting one from the second half on.

UCA led 35-27 at the half, but 4:22 into the second half the Cardinals had cut the lead to three.

"We knew that they were a second half team," Seals-Horton said. "But we knew that we were in better shape.

"Speed-wise we were a lot faster."

But the Sugar Bears could never run away with the lead, and Lamar started to make their move with 3:30 minutes left, trimming the lead to four, 60-56.

UCA missed its next shot, got the rebound, but threw it away trying to reset the offense.

Lamar’s Dionne Pounds made the most of the opportunity, making her third three-pointer of the game.

The Cardinals leading scorer, Brittney Williams, followed two UCA free throws with four points of her own, giving a 63-62 lead to Lamar, their first lead since 0-2.

Pounds put Lamar on top 65-63 with a jumper with 15 seconds remaining. Then, Renita Dobbins took advantage of her speed to race down the floor in just four seconds and was fouled attempting a layup. After sinking clutch free throws, the game was tied at 65-65.

Pounds got an awkward looking attempt at the buzzer that hit the rim but bounced off, sending the game to overtime.

"We had a lead and we should have kept it," UCA’s leading scorer Caronica Randle, who finished with 20 points, said.

UCA scored first in overtime and had a three point lead with 30 seconds remaining.

Lamar crumbled under the pressure. They missed in succession two free throws, two three pointers and two more free throws on one trip down the floor.

It was one of the few times that UCA couldn’t come up with a rebound. When they finally did, Mariesha Piggee sealed the win with two more UCA free throws, pushing the lead to four points with just six seconds left.

Or so we thought.

Pounds was fouled shooting a three with one second remaining. She was successful on the first two attempts, leaving Lamar with a shot if they could rebound the miss and make a three to tie with just one second left.

The improbable didn’t happen and the Sugar Bears could finally exhale and enjoy their first win of the conference season.

"A lot of good things happened for us," Seals-Horton said.

"What is there to lose, we were 0-and-4. You’ve got to get a win sooner or later, so you can just come in and just play."

Turnovers cost Bears in loss

The Bears had a two-point lead after 24 minutes of play Saturday night, but the Islanders turned up the defensive pressure the next 3:12 which led to six turnovers and 17 straight Corpus Christi points. The 15-point deficit was too much for the Bears to overcome and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi left the Farris Center with an 85-73 win.

"We did a poor job against the press," head coach Rand Chappell said.

Chappell went on to say the stretch cost UCA the game.

"We just threw the ball away."

UCA committed 16 turnovers in the game, Corpus Christi scored 17 points off of those.

Even shooting 52% and 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the second, the Islanders took advantage of their size in the seven-footer Chris Daniels to shoot an amazing 67% from the field in the final half.

"We played with a lot of energy and enthusiasm," Chappell said. "We just didn’t have the answer."

Daniels missed just four shots on the night and even stepped out and drained a three early in the second half on his way to a career-high 34 points.

Both teams got off to great starts on the offensive ends. TAMU-CC made its first five shots while UCA made four of five. The Islanders got out to a five-point lead, 18-13, before UCA started chipping away at the lead, eventually taking a 33-32 lead into halftime.

The teams swapped leads to start the second half, but after Durrell Nevels’ jumper put the Bears up 42-40, things started to fall apart.

"We didn’t find a way to stop them," Chappell said.

"They’ve got a lot of good players and athletes.

The Bears cut the 15-point lead down to nine several times throughout the rest of the game and even looked to have some momentum with 6:23 remaining after a Mitch Rueter’s dunk cut it to nine.

The Islanders got the ball inside to Daniels the next time down the floor, and he proceeded to make two of his nine free throws.

Cheppell said that the team’s plan was to handle the ball well and stay in the game to just have a chance in the end. If it wasn’t for a horrendous three-minute stretch, the Bears would have had that opportunity.

Marcus Pillow led the Bears with 22 points on 8-for-15 shooting. Nevels was the only other player to finish in double-figures.

"Marcus had a nice game," Chappell said. "He shot it well."

The Bears head out on the road to face another conference foe with a 7′, 335-pound star in Lamar’s James Davis Thursday night in Beaumont, Texas.

First SLC win comes at Farris

An impressive home crowd saw the Bears (6-10, 1-2) shoot 58 percent in the first half and jump out to a 32-23 halftime lead on their way to a 59-49 win.

It was an ugly start for UCA as the team turned the ball over on each of the first four possessions.

"We’ve just got to take better care of the ball," head coach Rand Chappell said.

The good news was that UTSA only scored one point off those turnovers. When UCA finally got a shot off, Mitch Reuter drilled a three from the left wing.

The lead switched hands for the last time when Marcus Pillow made his first basket of the night, putting the Bears on top 13-12.

The Roadrunners got the lead back to two at 17-15, but Fernando Johnson was left open under the basket for an easy dunk.

Then Nate Bowie, the leading scorer in Saturday’s loss to Texas State, took over the next two possessions offensively. The first with a his second three, followed by a UCA steal and a wild made jumper just inside the arc to put UCA up 27-19.

UCA’s run would end when Durrell Nevels made a basket for UTSA while attempting a rebound, but more momentum swung UCA’s way after Fred Campbell sunk a three to end the half.

"I think our offense is coming around a little bit," Chappell said.

The Bears shot 57 percent from the three-point line in the first half and held UTSA to 0-for-4.

The momentum stayed on UCA’s side to open the second half.

Nevels started the half with a basket and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but Reuter was there for the rebound. Once the ball got back to Reuter, he was open in front of the UCA bench and drilled the three-point shot, giving UCA a 37-23 lead.

"That’s probably the biggest play of the game," Chappell said of the eight point streak to end the first and begin the second half.

The lead would grow to 17 with 9:35 remaining, but the UTSA defensive pressure would pick up from there. The Bears were held scoreless the next 4:20, turning the ball over three times in that span.

Johnson’s putback of a LeMar Phillips miss stopped the dry-spell and sent Johnson to the free throw line, where he’s just a 55% shooter. He decided that would be a good opportunity to use the backboard and made his only free throw of the night on four attempts to put the Bears up 48-39.

"Fernando broke their momentum a bit," Chappell said.

With under a minute remaining, UTSA cut the lead to seven at 53-47. But the Bears made all six free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds to hold on to the win.

"With a 17 point lead, you don’t want to play fast," Chappell said.

"I told our guys patience and defense are going to win the game."

The shooting cooled off to just 38 percent in the second half, but the Bears defense forced UTSA to shoot just 35 percent.

Chappell said after the game that shooting 40 percent will keep you in ballgames and that shooting the 48 percent that UCA shot Thursday night would put you in position to win ballgames.

"It’s awesome to get our first crack here at home," Chappell said. "It felt like a college atmosphere – a division one atmosphere.

"At home you have to be more enrgetic than the other team, and I think we were tonight."