LAKE CHARLES, La. — The top two teams in the Southland Conference will meet for the second and final time of the regular season on Saturday when the first-place Sugar Bears travel to Burton Coliseum to take on the second-place McNeese State Cowgirls at 1 p.m.
The Sugar Bears (19-4, 9-1 Southland) handed the Cowgirls (17-6, 7-2) their first loss of the conference season back on Jan. 28 in a double-overtime thriller in the Farris Center, winning 71-70. McNeese has since suffered a setback at Stephen F. Austin, the same team to deal the Sugar Bears their lone league defeat. A UCA win would put the Sugar Bears two games ahead of the rest of the league with five games remaining. A UCA loss would put the Sugar Bears and Cowgirls into a first-place tie.
Last season the Sugar Bears defeated the Cowgirls in overtime in Conway and went to Lake Charles a few weeks later looking for the sweep. Despite building a 15-point lead and being up 11 with under nine minutes to play, the Sugar Bears came up short in that effort as the Cowgirls went on a 19-4 run to take the lead in the final two minutes and hang on for the win.
The Sugar Bears led 31-23 at the half in that game, but the Cowgirls rallied with a 42-28 advantage in the second half – limiting the Sugar Bears to just 6-for-16 shooting (37.5 percent) while getting more than twice as many field goal attempts and shooting 42.9 percent (15-of-35). UCA committed 23 turnovers to just eight for the Cowgirls, including a margin of 15-3 in the second half.
McNeese guard Ashlyn Baggett led all scorers with 21, while Kiara Johnson had 11 points and 9 rebounds. Megan Herbert had 15 points and 10 rebounds for UCA and Nakeia Guiden had 11 points.
In two games at Burton Coliseum in her career, Herbert is averaging 15 points and 13 rebounds per game while shooting 84 percent from the free throw line. Nakeia Guiden, who has played at McNeese three times, is averaging 15 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists at Burton. Desiree' Rogers has averaged 11.5 points in her two games at McNeese.
In this season's first meeting, Herbert -- who is now 10th in Southland history with 1,000 rebounds -- had 32 points and 15 rebounds to lead all players. Micah Rice, who forced overtime with a 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation, had 13 points for UCA, and Guiden had a career-high 9 assists. Caitlyn Baggett led McNeese with 23 points while Ashlyn Baggett added 17. Martika Hull had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Sugar Bears are 2-2 all-time in Burton Coliseum, winning 66-56 in 2007 and 76-58 in 2010, and losing last season and 70-60 in 2009. UCA won the 2008 meeting, which was played at Jennings High School – the alma mater of McNeese coach Brooks Donald-Williams – 85-79. UCA leads the series 8-4.
