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. "