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KUCA RADIO BROADCAST with Steve Owens, beginning 5:40
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — After defeating ULM 63-56 in overtime on Saturday, Central Arkansas is back on the road Tuesday when the Sugar Bears meet up with the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at 6 p.m.
The Sugar Bears (4-1) suffered their lone loss of the season to date in their last road game, an 80-53 setback at Indiana on Nov. 18. The Gamecocks (2-3) began their season with three straight road losses, but have won their last two games – beating Kennesaw State 78-65 in their lone home game thus far before going on the road to new Southland Conference member New Orleans and winning 54-51 on Saturday.
The two teams have one common opponent in Ole Miss, with both teams playing in Oxford. The Sugar Bears knocked off the Rebels 66-63 while the Gamecocks lost 83-62.
The Gamecocks are allowing 65.6 points per game while are scoring 58.6, led by 5-foot-8 junior guard Candace Morton, who averages 17 points, 8.2 rebounds and nearly 2 steals. Miranda Cantrell, a 6-foot junior center, is the team's second-leading scorer at 11.6 per game and leads the team with 10 rebounds per contest. Kelly Naughton, a 5-7 freshman guard, leads the Gamecocks with 5.2 assists per game, while Bria'un Buckner is the team's top outside shooting threat, hitting 2 per game. As a team, the Gamecocks have hit only 19 (of 79, 24 percent) from beyond the arc this season. The Sugar Bears have made 31 from long range, led by freshman Maggie Proffitt's 10, followed by eight apiece from Micah Rice and Brianna Mullins.
Those three, along with senior Courtney Duever, are averaging double figures in scoring for the Sugar Bears with Duever leading the way at 14.4 followed by Proffitt at 12.4, Mullins at 10.8 and Rice at 10.0. Duever is the team's leading rebounder at 9 per game, with Brittany Agee averaging 4.4 and both Rice and Proffitt averaging 4.0
The Sugar Bears are allowing opponents to shoot just 33.2 percent from the field for the season, and the Gamecocks are shooting just 34 percent while allowing the opposition to connect on 40 percent of their shots.
It will mark the first meeting between the teams, but the eighth team from the Ohio Valley Conference the Sugar Bears have played. UCA is 7-9 against OVC teams since moving to Division I, having met Austin Peay, Belmont, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin.
The Sugar Bears will meet Austin Peay again on Saturday in their next game, followed by home games against Southern Illinois on Dec. 2, Southern Miss on Dec. 7, Arkansas State on Dec. 21 and Philander Smith on Dec. 30 to round out the non-conference season before beginning Southland play at home on Jan. 2 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
