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Free throws. Free throws. Free throws.
Guiden missed her last five attempts! Why was the ball in the hands of a freshman 50% free throw shooter that many times at the end of the game? We have three players who shoot over 87 percent. Wow. To battle back from 13 down and then lose like that... Wow.

That ball wasn't in her hands. They kept fouling before the ball was thrown in.

I guess you could wonder why she was even in the game given the obvious strategy SIU was employing. I assume it would be for defensive purposes, but the question you have to ask is, is her defensive ability valuable enough to offset her inefficiency at the line? The coaches obviously thought it was.

And the thing is, it wasn't even really the determining factor in the game. That's what you see and what's magnified since it was at the end, but you could pick a number of other plays through the first 38 minutes or so that would result in two-point swing. And despite that, the Sugar Bears still had the lead.

It ultimately came down to SIU making a play. They had to throw up a shot that may not have even really gotten away before the horn blew to pull off the win.

They tried giving it away, too. The absolutely stupid personal foul where Hart just shoved Laura Beth down before the ball was inbounded, and then Smith stepping over the line early to go chase her own free throw.

Tough to lose on a last-second shot like that, but the bright side there is that they were in position to lose in the last second instead of getting run out of the gym. After getting thumped at Jackson State and Tulsa in two games that should've been closer, going down 13 at home would probably be a fine time to lay down and quit but they showed some resiliency and actually rose up and punched somebody in the mouf (figuratively speaking, of course).

In all, despite the loss I would say it was an encouraging night.

Good game and great effort...would have been easy to laydown behind 13 in 2nd half...listened to most of game until ran out of radio range.....these SugarBears do not quit......seems like Coach Matt is getting his combinations of players right....let's get ready fro UAM.....

Hard way to lose one. Hopefully a little maturity will produce a different result in the future.

So how was the attendance?

Officially: 184

I hope this becomes a turing point for this young team. I hope they gained a ton of confindence from this game and carry it with them into their future games!

One positive thing I did notice is that we only turned the ball over 16 times the entire game! They turned it over 17! Also:
Points in the paint-SIU 24,UCA 44. Points off turnovers-SIU 15,UCA 21.
2nd chance points-SIU 9,UCA 16. Fast break points-SIU 4,UCA 12.
Bench points-SIU 11,UCA 25.

I didn't arrive until early in the second half and the Sugarbears were 11 down at that point.

They are playing HARD and it's going to fall into place for them shortly, but they have got to learn how to finish. Last night was a VERY tough pill for them to swallow, but they should learn from this.

Your right Josh, the turnovers are an improvement, but that is STILL way too many.

TOs this season: Ours first/Other team second
Hendrix: 26/26
LA Tech: 21/13
SEMO: 29/22
Grambling: 24/22
Oral Roberts: 21/15
UAPB: 21/16
Tulsa: 31/16
Jackson State: 12/11
SIU: 16/17

Things are definitely improving in the TO department, but you are right Monty...they could still be better.

I think Guiden now has a major focus area, but Nakeia will step up to the challenge. She always does. Other than than lowlight at the charity stripe, she was phenomenal last night. 100% from tip to finish. Rebounding, assisting, slicing to the basket, a few steals... she'll be alright. I'm definitely keeping the faith in this one.

On a different note, maybe she should have been inbounding the ball once their strategy became apparent since she is struggling from the line at the moment. Who knows? Just a thought.
One thing I do know is that the only way to get out of a slump is to SHOOT your way out of it - maybe that was the plan...

In my (poor) defense, I was only keeping up with the live stats. I didn't know those were fouls away from the ball/prior to being inbounded.

I've learned my lesson...

It was a tough loss, but I left so encouraged by what I had witnessed. I can't think of time we have come from behind in the 2nd half and took a lead at all since I've been here. I know we were down to UAPB 10-0 right off the bat this season, but being down 13 in the 2nd half is a different animal.

Guiden was a major reason we were even in contention in the game. Her hustling and diving after loose balls everywhere really seemed to spark this team. And her drives into the lane were killing SIU, of course she had help from Des too in that area. I know NG came up short on a lot of FTs at the end, but if not for her, those FTs would have never even been meaningful to begin with, it would have just been another blowout loss.

I think this team turned A corner, despite the loss. There are still many other corners to turn, but I think they just took another step to figuring some things out. And after seeing most of them last night at the men's game, this group is resiliant. They've already put the loss behind them are are squarely focused on UAM tonight, which is great to see! Now let's hope they play like they did in the 2nd half v. SIU for a full 40!