CONWAY — With under eight minutes to go on Saturday, UT Martin looked to be on its way to a big road win at Central Arkansas as the Skyhawks had a 10 point lead.
But they did not have Megan Herbert.
The junior forward had 15 points, five rebounds and three blocks in the second half and orchestrated a big run down the stretch to help force overtime, where the Sugar Bears jumped ahead and held on for a 69-65 win over the Skyhawks.
"That was a great win against a great team," said UCA head coach Matt Daniel, who coached his 100th game at the school. "They are hard-nosed and hard-fought and we're fortunate to get out of here with a win today. But it sure feels good to be 7-2."
With the Sugar Bears (7-2) facing their biggest home deficit of the season, Herbert – who finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds and a career-high four blocks – scored nine straight points for UCA and 13 of 16 as the team went on an 18-6 run to take a lead in the final minutes before the Skyhawks (4-5) hit a pair of free throws with 1:09 left to ultimately force overtime.
The Sugar Bears raced out of the gate in the extra period, scoring the first five points en route to a 10-3 run to take a 67-60 lead with under two minutes left. After a UCA turnover bookended by three UT Martin free throws, Desiree' Rogers hit one of two free throws to put the lead at 68-63 with 1:21 remaining.
The Skyhawks cut the lead to three on a pair of Jasmine Newsome free throws with 1:09 left, but that would prove to be their final points as they missed their final two field goal attempts. A Nakeia Guiden free throw with 13 seconds left was the game's final score, and the Sugar Bears escaped with the four-point win.
"When you're struggling, you can't give up," Daniel said. "There can't be any quit in you. And there was no quit in us tonight. We never hung our heads. It took us 45 minutes, but I wouldn't have cared if it had taken all night as long as we got that result."
After a poor first half in which they shot just 31 percent, the game turned for the Sugar Bears when Herbert began her run at the 9:08 mark. After knocking down a pair of free throws to cut the UCA deficit to eight, she came back on the other end and blocked a shot by Newsome. The Sugar Bears turned it over on the ensuing possession, but Herbert was there for another block on a Newsome shot attempt.
She then scored seven of the game's next nine points to reduce the Skyhawk lead to five with 6:15 to play. She followed a minute later with her third blocked shot of the half, which led to a 3-pointer from Westin Taylor to make it 53-51 UT Martin with 4:55 to go.
The Skyhawks' Taylor Hall misfired on the other end, and Herbert was there to corral the rebound. She then answered with another basket, tying the game at 53 with 3:55 to play. After Martin's Heather Butler made two free throws, it was another Herbert basket that drew the Sugar Bears even once again.
After the teams traded turnovers, Herbert rebounded another Skyhawk miss and the Sugar Bears took their first lead in nearly 22 minutes on a bucket from Guiden with 1:31 to go.
Herbert went on to tack on three more points, two rebounds and an assist in the overtime period.
"There was a time when we were trying to figure out which team really wanted it," Daniel said. "There was never any doubt that she wanted it. She made that very clear in the second half. You could see their coach stop her after the game, and I'm sure he pointed that out to her. Her effort today was relentless."
In addition to Herbert's outburst, an important factor to the Sugar Bears' second-half turnaround was the defensive effort against Newsome and Butler, UTM's high-scoring backcourt duo. The pair came into the game averaging a combined 40.7 points, and finished Saturday's contest with 41 (27 for Butler, 14 for Newsome); but only 12 of that came in the second half as they combined for 2-for-10 shooting.
The Sugar Bears dominated the glass in the second half, outrebounding the Skyhawks 17-7, and went 90 percent from the free throw line. UCA finished the game 15-for-18 (83.3 percent) from the line.
"I thought our focus was good for the most part," Daniel said. "We tried to approach it like a conference tournament title game, because they're very similar to some teams in our conference. They played a little matchup zone and that led to some uncertainty for us, but the thing that handles that is a mature mind. A cool head wins a hot game."
In addition to Herbert's season-high 27, the Sugar Bears got 12 from Micah Rice – all on 3-pointers, including the first of overtime – 10 from Guiden and nine from Courtney Duever. Herbert moved past Bekka Middleton for 7th place in UCA history with 840 career rebounds. She needs four more to move past Dale Dennis for 6th.
The win was the first for the Sugar Bears in three tries against the Skyhawks after losses in 2006 and '07.
In Daniel's 100th game, the Sugar Bears moved to 55-45 under his watch; and after going 6-23 in his first season are 49-22 since.
The Sugar Bears will go through final exams this week before heading to the Bahamas next weekend where they will face High Point and Georgia Tech.
"I gold the girls to enjoy it," Daniel said of Saturday's win. "We're giving them tomorrow off, but then our focus shifts directly to finals. My favorite letters are W's and A's. We got the W, now we have to go get some A's. We'll focus on that, then go get ready for High Point."
