UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

McNeese State rallied from a 15-point deficit to overtake the Sugar Bears in the final minutes for a 65-59 victory over the Sugar Bears.

The UCA women (15-9, 7-4) fell three games behind the Cowgirls, who are undefeated at home, in the SLC East race. However, UCA has likely already qualified for the postseason conference tournament at Katy, Texas.

“We did a great job defensively against McNeese until the last three minutes,” UCA coach Matt Daniel said. “The opportunity to be in the conference tournament is cool for a team so young.”

Megan Herbert, Courtney Duever and Destinee Rogers, the Sugar Bears’ primary inside players, all picked up two fouls against McNeese within 10 minutes.

“I’m not disappointed in our effort,” Daniel said. “We knew we had to play hard, play smart and played composed. Against adversity, how we handled everything after the game on all fronts, I knew I was in the right team’s dressing room after the game. That’s just my feelings about this team.”

Sam Houston State is the West Division leader.

“This is an important game,” Daniel said. “There’s gonna be some shakeup in the standings this week. Sam Houston is better they were expected to be based on preseason polling. We’re playing them on their home court, but it would be a tough test regardless of environment.”