CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Sugar Bears conclude their regular season tonight at 7 p.m. against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the final game before the Southland Conference tournament begins on Tuesday.
The Sugar Bears (18-10, 10-5 Southland) are guaranteed in. The Islanders (2-26, 0-15) are guaranteed out. But both teams come into Saturday night's game with plenty to play for.
If UTSA, also 10-5 in the league, defeats UT Arlington (5-10) in their meeting at 4 p.m. in San Antonio, the Sugar Bears would secure the tournament's No. 3 seed with a win over the Islanders.
Currently the Sugar Bears sit in a three-way tie with UTSA and Sam Houston State. UTSA owns the tiebreaker over Sam Houston in the Western Division, and the Sugar Bears have the tiebreaker over UTSA by virtue of Wednesday night's 81-59 win.
Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State square off on Saturday at 6 p.m. with the No. 6 seed – and a potential first-round matchup with the Sugar Bears – on the line. SFA is 8-7 in league play and Northwestern State is 9-6, but the Ladyjacks would own the head-to-head tiebreaker with a win over the Lady Demons.
If UTSA were to fall to UT Arlington and Sam Houston State defeats Texas State, leaving only the Sugar Bears and Bearkats at 11-5, the Sugar Bears would be seeded fourth and would likely face UTSA in the first round.
With a loss to the Islanders the Sugar Bears could still enter the tournament as the No. 4, but could drop down to No. 5 depending on the outcome of Saturday's other games.
The Islanders have no stake in the tournament, but are fighting for something just as valuable – pride. Having not won a conference game, the Islanders enter Saturday with one final shot to avoid becoming the sixth team in Southland history to go winless in league play.
It will be Senior Night at the American Bank Center, and seniors Jade Davis, Anitra Jeffery, Louvinia Robinson, Adrienne Scott and Lauren Smith will be looking to salvage a victory in the final game of their careers.
Last season the Islanders handily defeated the Sugar Bears 86-65 in Corpus Christi. A&M-Corpus Christi is the only team UCA has yet to defeat since joining the league.
Scott, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, leads the Islanders in scoring at 13.6 points per game and is averaging 7.5 rebounds. Jeffery, a 6-foot senior forward, is the team's leading rebounder at 9.1 per game and also scores 9.1 points per game.
Davis, a preseason first team all-conference pick who averaged 15 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3 assists per game last season, is averaging just 6.2 points per game and less than two rebounds and assists this season.
In addition to tournament seeding, the Sugar Bears come into the last game of the regular season looking to finish 11-5 in the league for the second consecutive season and bring their average victories over the last two years to 20.
Megan Herbert enters the final day of play with a 29-point lead over McNeese State sophomore guard Ashlyn Baggett for the league's regular-season scoring crown and leads Sam Houston State sophomore Sequeena Thomas by 46 rebounds for the top mark in the conference.
Herbert would become the only player in Southland Conference history to lead the league in both scoring and rebounding in a season twice.
With 19 double-doubles this season, Herbert is tied for third in the nation and would move up into a tie for second. At 18 points per game she is 38th in the nation in scoring, her 11.4 rebounds per game ranks 8th as does her 58.1 field goal percentage. Herbert is one of six players in the nation averaging at least 18 points and 11 rebounds per game.
