BEAUMONT, Texas — In a meeting of Southland Conference heavyweights, Central Arkansas traded blows with defending league champion Lamar for most of Saturday's matchup. Unfortunately for the Sugar Bears, the Lady Cardinals landed a few too many and held on for a 77-67 win at the Montagne Center in the 2011 Southland Conference opener.
"We got behind early but made some tweaks and battled," UCA head coach Matt Daniel said. "But we made too many mental errors and didn't play particularly great. I thought we played hard and together as a team, we just have to play smarter on both ends of the floor. They're a very good basketball club – they just won their seventh in a row and and they're undefeated at home. But one game is not going to determine this deal. I'm excited for them to come back to the Farris Center later on in the year."
The Sugar Bears (8-6, 0-1 Southland) had the Lady Cardinals (12-3, 1-0) reeling midway through the second half, having taken the momentum by cutting what was once a 13-deficit to to just two early in the second half, but Lamar countered with a 7-0 run in just over a minute and the Sugar Bears were never able to get over the hump.
UCA chipped away again and trailed just 68-63 with 3:50 left and possession of the ball, but Micah Rice was whistled for a five-second call as Daniel was attempting signal to the officials for a timeout. Lamar's Monique Whittaker came back with a 3-pointer on the other end to put the Lady Cardinals ahead eight and the Sugar Bears were unable to pull back closer than six the rest of the way.
The Sugar Bears did an effective job on Jenna Plumley, the league's reigning Player of the Year, holding her to six points – including just two in the first half on a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left. Jasmin Henderson came off the bench with a season-high 17 points, including hitting 5-of-6 from 3-point range, to help pick up the slack for the Lady Cardinals. Whittaker, the team's leading scorer this season, had a game-high 21.
"They hurt us in some different places," Daniel said. "We knew Henderson was capable of shooting it, and she brought that to the table and had a career night. That's the second time that's happened to us lately – this one and the Chicago State game, kids come off the bench for career nights. We've got to make adjustments to that."
Rice had a season-high 18 points, including 11 in the first half, to lead the Sugar Bears in scoring. Megan Herbert had 15 points and a season-high 17 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season. She also added two blocks and tied a career high with three steals.
UCA dug itself a big hole early, falling behind 10 less than seven minutes into the game. After by double digits for much of the half, a late run cut the deficit to three but the Lady Cardinals scored the last four to take a 44-37 lead at the half.
"There was about 12 minutes left in the first half and we were thinking 'uh-oh'," Daniel said. "The rebounding killed us initially and we struggled early on but we got that corrected and won the rebound battle – we just turned the ball over too much and unnecessarily."
The Sugar Bears had what appeared to be a good opportunity to gain ground in the second half when Plumley was whistled for her fourth foul with 19:19 remaining in the game. With her on the bench, UCA cut it to six but Lamar once again had the answer and responded with six straight points to push the lead back out to 12 with under eight minutes left.
The Lady Cardinals finished the game shooting 43.9 percent from the field compared to just 37.1 percent for the Sugar Bears. Lamar was 19 of 21 (90.5 percent) from the free throw line, while the Sugar Bears were 13 of 19 (68.4).
