STILLWATER, Okla. – For a half, Central Arkansas traded blows with Oklahoma State and looked poised to score the upset victory at Gallagher-Iba Arena, but the homestanding Cowgirls proved too much in the second half as they pulled away from the Sugar Bears for a 72-51 victory in the opening round of the WNIT.
Less than five years removed from trailing OSU 61-15 at the half en route to a 71-point defeat, this year’s Sugar Bear team managed to play the Cowgirls virtually even for the first 20 minutes – even without the services of starting junior forward Desiree’ Rogers, the team’s second-leading rebounder and fifth-leading scorer who was out with a torn ACL suffered in the Southland Conference tournament 10 days ago.
But the much bigger Cowgirls wore the Sugar Bears down in the second half and advanced to a second-round meeting with Wichita State.
“I’m not pleased with the spread, but I’m pleased with our effort,” said UCA head coach Matt Daniel. “We played our hearts out. This is an outstanding group and I’m really proud of their effort. They did a good job of playing through some mistakes and some adversity. But no matter what happened here tonight, it’s been a phenomenal year and this was a phenomenal venue to close out the season in.”
After trailing just two, 36-34, at halftime, the Sugar Bears (24-7) went cold in the second half, shooting 14 percent and 10 percent from 3-point range, and the Cowgirls (17-12) took advantage.
OSU forward Toni Young scored 16 of her game-high 22 points in the half on 7-for-8 shooting to help the Cowgirls pull away. The Sugar Bears trailed seven with 15 minutes left when a Megan Herbert 3-point attempt that would have cut the deficit to four spun all the way around the rim before falling out. OSU seized its opportunity and went on a 15-5 run to go up 17 with 10 minutes to play. UCA did not get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
“There were four things I thought made the difference,” Daniel said. “One, we ran out of gas. Two, they were much bigger and exposed that with their execution. We didn’t do a good job of getting out to their shooters in the first half, and I thought we did a much better job in the second half. And the tone of the game changed in the second half and I thought it was a little more physical than the first.”
UCA shot 41 percent in the first half, including 43 percent from 3-point range, as they hung with a Cowgirl team that was one of the final four teams eliminated from consideration for the NCAA Tournament
Junior guard Micah Rice led the Sugar Bears with 17 points, hitting 4-for-7 from 3-point range. Destinee Rogers had 12 points in her final game at UCA. It was also the final game in the careers of Nakeia Guiden and Marci Moffitt.
“I told them I am forever indebted to them,” Daniel said. “Those are three key components we’re losing. They all bring something different to the table on and off the floor. They’ve helped us win a lot of games, championships, break record and hang banners. Expectations have been raised, and that’s because we’ve had such quick success that they’ve contributed heavily to, and hopefully that can continue after they are gone.”
In a tough draw against a Big 12 team that had defeated five NCAA tournament teams within their own league this season, the Sugar Bears finish their season having made a postseason tournament for the second straight season in their first two years eligible in Division I. They do so having gone 14-2 en route to a league championship, putting together a perfect 16-0 mark at home and going 3-1 against NCAA tournament teams.
“We accomplished some incredible things, and while you never want to see your season end with a loss, to be able to be in the WNIT playing a program the caliber of Oklahoma State says a lot about the type of year we had,” he said. “It’s incredibly difficult to win 24 games, a conference championship and go to postseason play at any level. We were able to do that, and now we have to go back to work to try to do it again next year.”
