Bears use size to beat Riders

Conway — Senior Stephin Booth made the best of senior night. The transfer from Cal State Bakersfield scored a season-high 17 points off the bench for the Bears on their way to a comfortable 73-56 win over Southern Arkansas University in the Farris Center on Thursday night.

"Stephin played really well," UCA coach Rand Chappell said. "He got a lot of balls around the basket and finished a bunch of them. That’s what we need out of him."

The first half began with a layup after a backdoor cut by UCA’s Joey Cortez, who was fouled and made the free throw to give the Bears a 3-0 lead. But SAU made four of their first six 3-point attempts to start the game and took a 11-8 lead with 15:53 left to play.

"We had a hard time, I felt like, defending them at times," Chappell said. "They shot the 3-point shot well in the first half. We knew they would."

With the game tied at 17-17 after senior Brandon Lipsey hit a 3, Lipsey then had two blocks on a single SAU possession. [Note: I know the stats say he only had one in the game.] The blocks led to a reverse lay-in by Chad Wise to give the Bears a 19-17 advantage.

SAU’s Brandon Bealer answered with the teams final 3-pointer of the half to give the Muleriders their final lead of the game at 20-19.

Senior Alexi Koralev took advantage of his three minutes of playing time by snagging an offensive rebound and making the putback for two of the Bears 16 first-half points in the paint.

The largest lead of the half was seven points by UCA, and they took a 36-33 edge to halftime although SAU had shot a higher percentage from the floor.

The Bears defense picked up and only allowed the Riders to shoot an abysmal 26% in the second half, including just 2-of-9 from outside the 3-point arc, which was their hotspot in the first half.

"When we play good defense and hold that other team around 30%, even high 30% range, that gives us a great chance to win game," Chappell said.

SAU decreased the lead to 50-45 with 11:57 remaining, but the Bears used the next two minutes to expand the lead to 10.

Senior Darryl Jones, who finished with 11 points, scored his final two of the game to start a 12-2 Bear run that included Wise’s second 3 of the game and Booth’s second dunk and gave UCA a 62-48 upper hand.

For a 4:12 stretch late in the game, neither team made a field goal. The Bears scored the last 7 points of the game.

Jones, Booth, Cortez and LeMar Phillips all finished in double figures.

"I guess that’s the winning formula is to have four people in double-figures or five if possible. We’ve improved all year long, and where we sit in this league at 10-6, that’s not bad.

The Bears took advantage of a size advantage to outrebound SAU. They also scored 40 of their points in the paint.

"Offensively, they pressured hard again. We did a little bit better job of handling it this time. We got a few backdoor layups, were able to get to the paint and score some points."

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Sugar Bears win, lockup GSC tourney berth

Conway —It was hard to tell if the Sugar Bears just wanted it more or if Southern Arkansas University was just that overmatched, but it didn’t take long for UCA to take control of the game. But, the comfortable lead UCA took into halftime was slowly chipped away at by SAU. UCA (17-10, 9-7) managed to wrap up the regular season with a 75-65 win in the Farris Center.

"It feels great to get a win," head coach Checola Seals-Horton said. "The kids did a really good job."

The first half was just ugly for SAU (12-14, 7-8). One-third of their points came from the free throw line, and until about eight minutes left in the half, the Lady Muleriders made just one shot from the floor.

Even the Sugar Bears were scoreless for the first two minutes, but after putting the first points on the board, Caronica Randle scored six straight to give the Sugar Bears an 8-0 lead.

The Riders finally scored their first pointsafter more than three minutes.

Then, UCA, specifically Allicia Kellogg, got hot from outside. Kellogg gave UCA a 10-point lead, and Micaela Thomas followed with a 3-pointer of her own. After two SAU free throws, Kellogg hit another three to extend the Sugar Bear lead to 19-5. That three was the start of an 11-point run that already put the game well in hand, 27-5.

SAU was able to cut the lead back down to 15 before they saw Kellog hit her third 3-pointer of the half in almost exactly the same spot on the floor as the first two.

Both teams traded baskets the rest of the half, and the Sugar Bears entered halftime up 46-24.

Remember what I said about the first half (it was ugly)? The second half was even worse, but this time is was UCA struggling.

The Sugar Bears did their best to let SAU back in the game in the second half. The Lady Riders came out a different team offensively, scoring the first seven points to cut the lead back to 15, at 46-31.

"[SAU] couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn in the first half," Seals said, "and we took advantage of that. In the second half they came out and hit six straight points. They were able to get their shot off and were able to actually knock it down."

UCA finally got the stop Coach Seals was yelling for from the bench, and the Sugar Bears scored their first points of the half. But UCA could never get on track and SAU kept the lead cut, and with 43 seconds finally had it back down to 10 points.

"We weren’t getting the defensive stops that we needed, and when we were going to the rack, we weren’t making our shots," Seals said.

The Sugar Bears never allowed it to slip to single-digits, and the game ended at the same 10-point lead, 75-65.

"This was a big game for our two seniors as well as for Mariesha [Piggee]," Seals said. "So, we came out in the first half and did a really good job. We were able to get some stops and able to score. Then we had our little drought, but we were able to come out with a victory."

Kellogg, who played 14 first-half minutes, only played five in the second. Randle finished with 16 on 5-of-10 shooting and six free throws. Thomas and fellow senior Victoria Richards were the only other UCA players to finish in double-figures. Both had 10 in their final appearance inside the Farris Center.

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