CONWAY — After a strong start in which they built an 11-point lead, Central Arkansas was unable to maintain its pace as Southern Miss rallied and came away with a 71-60 win over the Sugar Bears in the Farris Center on Monday.
The Sugar Bears (5-4) led 28-17 with just under seven minutes to go in the first half, but the Lady Eagles (7-2) closed out the half on a 20-3 run and put the Sugar Bears away late in the second half with a 9-2 spurt to extend their lead to 15 in the final five minutes.
"I like the way we came out early, but we lost energy," said UCA head coach Sandra Rushing. "And let's face it, Southern Miss is a better basketball team. They're quicker and more physical, and even though we wanted a win, I'm really happy that we were able to hang in there with them for as long as we did."
The Lady Eagles shot 60 percent from the field in the game, including an 83.3 percentage (15 of 18) in the first half. The Sugar Bears, after shooting 44.4 percent in the first half, were just 8 for 24 (33.3 percent) in the second including a span of more than 10 mintues without a field goal. Free throws also proved to be problematic for the Sugar Bears as they were just 13 of 25 for 52 percent.
"We're not shooting it well at all," Rushing said. "Look at the percentages, especially with our post players. Brittany Agee is 1 for 5, Courtney Duever is 1 for 7. And then we shoot 25 free throws and only make 13. We've got a lot of work to do. Our post defense is not very good, our guards are still making bad decisions. We need to get on the same page. With a young team you're going to have mistakes, but make mistakes going hard."
The major bright spot for the Bears was the play off the bench from Terai Sadler, who had 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field and 6-for-9 at the free throw line, along with four rebounds in 27 minutes. Sadler has scored 16 points in two of the Sugar Bears' last three games, and had made 16 of 26 field goal attempts over the last four games - 61.5 percent.
Maggie Proffitt also added 8 points on 3-for-5 shooting in 12 minutes off the bench as the Sugar Bears' bench accounted for 33 of the team's 60 points. Brianna Mullins had 12 of the starting five's 27 points.
"T [Sadler] came in and did a good job for us," Rushing said. "She plays hard and plays smart. Maggie came in and helped us, and Kelsey McClure (5 points and 2 rebounds in 9 minutes) did some good things. I might need to think about starting some of those people who are coming off the bench right now. That's one of the things we'll have to go back and look at. And we've got to learn to put our foot on the accelerator and stay on it. We start great but don't know how to finish. There are some adjustments we need to make before Arkansas State comes in here on Saturday."
Markia Nix was 7-for-7 from the floor en route to a team-high 16 points for Southern Miss with Jamierra Faulkner adding 12 points and six assists and Jamara Jones contributing 10 points. The Lady Eagles won for the fifth time in six games, a streak that began with a 72-60 win over UALR on November 19 with the lone loss coming on Saturday, a 71-61 defeat at Mississippi State..
The Sugar Bears will host the Red Wolves at 2 p.m. on Saturday as the second part of a doubleheader with the UCA men taking on Charleston Southern at noon.
