ARLINGTON, Texas – Halfway through the Southland Conference season, Central Arkansas finds itself atop the league standings with a 7-1 record and riding a six-game winning streak, the longest in the conference. At 17-4 overall, the Sugar Bears are on pace for their most successful season in Division I and are off to their best start in nearly a decade.
When the Sugar Bears take on the UT Arlington Mavericks on Saturday, they’ll have a chance to equal their longest Southland winning streak ever at seven games. They’ll also have a chance to do something that has yet to be done by anybody – win a road game at UTA’s College Park Center.

The Mavericks (4-15, 2-5 Southland) opened their new 7,000-seat, $78 million arena on Wednesday with a 51-40 win over UTSA, and their men followed suit later in the evening. The Mavs’ second game in the new facility comes Saturday at 2 p.m. against the Sugar Bears, who are 3-1 on the road in conference games this season with wins at Lamar, Nicholls and Northwestern State and a loss at Stephen F. Austin.

UTA leads the series 3-2, though the Sugar Bears have won the last two. Last season UCA won 63-37 in the Farris Center, holding the Mavs to the lowest allowed to a Southland for in program history. In 2010, the Sugar Bears won 67-59 in their final appearance at Texas Hall.
Prior to beating UTSA on Wednesday, the Mavs’ lone conference win came on the road against SFA – the one team in the league thus far to defeat the Sugar Bears. UTA won 69-61 over the Ladyjacks with Sabreena DeNure leading the way with 19 points. For the season, the Mavs are paced by Bianca Sauls’ 7.2 points per game and Chauntandra Williams’ 7.1.

During the Sugar Bears’ six-game winning streak, Megan Herbert is leading the team with averages of 20.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. She is shooting 89.6 percent from the free throw line, and is coming off consecutive double-doubles in which she has averaged 27.5 points and 14 rebounds. In the win at Northwestern State, Herbert passed Kim Powell for 6^th on the UCA career scoring list.

Micah Rice is second on the team in scoring during the winning streak at 11.5 per game, hitting 38.5 percent of her 3-point shots and recording a 3.8-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Nakeia Guiden is averaging 11.2 points and 4.2 assists, while Destiree’ Rogers has put up 8.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Destinee Rogers, who has played 90 minutes in the last two games and committed just two turnovers, has a 3.3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio during the streak and is averaging 4.2 points and 3 rebounds. Off the bench, Courtney Duever is averaging 9.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in just 18 minutes per game, and is shooting 50 percent from the 3-point arc.

With a win the Sugar Bears would ensure themselves a winning conference record for the third straight season, and make them one of just two Southland teams – along with Lamar – to hit the 60-win plateau over the past three seasons.