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CONWAY — With Thursday's 57-54 win over Stephen F. Austin in the Farris Center, Central Arkansas remains one of just two Southland Conference women's basketball teams undefeated in league play, sitting 3-0 alongside Sam Houston State.
The win gave the Sugar Bears (10-4, 3-0) their 24th consecutive regular-season home victory and 12th straight at home against Southland competition. In all, they've won 46 of their last 52 on their home floor – an .885 winning percentage – and are 22-3 in home conference games during that period.
On Saturday, they'll welcome the last Southland team to walk out of the Farris Center with a road victory – the Northwestern State Lady Demons, who escaped with a 76-72 overtime victory on Feb. 2, 2011.
That setback also proved to be the Sugar Bears' last loss to the Lady Demons, sweeping last year's series by winning 84-43 in Conway and 67-61 in Natchitoches. In all, the series is tied 7-7.
Saturday's meeting will present a different look, however, as both teams are in their first years under new head coaches. The Lady Demons are 5-9 overall and 1-3 in Southland play under the head coaching tandem of Brooke and Scott Stoehr. After defeating McNeese State 64-62 in the conference opener, they have dropped three straight to Lamar, Sam Houston State and Oral Roberts.
The Lady Demons are led by senior center Jasmine Upchurch, who is averaging 15.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in conference play and 12 points and 6.7 rebounds for the season. Freshman guard Janelle Perez averages 10.4 points and a team-leading 3.2 assists per game. Sophomore guard Jasmine Bradley averages 7.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game for NSU.
Entering Saturday's game, Central Arkansas senior forward Megan Herbert is on the cusp of reaching a major milestone as she needs just two points to hit the 2,000 mark for her career. She would join Baylor's Brittney Griner, the 2012 Associated Press Player of the Year, as the only two current players in women's college basketball to amass more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in their careers.
By reaching the 2,000-point plateau, Herbert would become just the fifth player in Central Arkansas history and seventh in Southland Conference history to do so. She would also become the only Sugar Bear and one of just three players in Southland history with 2,000 points and 1,200 rebounds. In the history of Division I women's college basketball, only 56 players have ever hit both marks.
Herbert sits at fifth on the Central Arkansas career scoring list and needs 23 to move past Terri Conder for fourth. She is seventh in Southland history and needs 31 for sixth and 65 to break into the top five.
In Southland play, Herbert is averaging a league-best 24.7 points and is second in the league with 10.3 rebounds. Junior center Courtney Duever, coming off a double-double in Thursday's win over SFA, is averaging 14 points (10th in Southland) and 9 rebounds (3rd) in league play. Senior guard Tracey Parsons is second in the league with 5.7 assists per game through three conference games.
