CONWAY — Central Arkansas was 9 of 12 from the free throw line over the final five minutes, including Terai Sadler going 6-for-6 to give the Sugar Bears a lead they would not relinquish as they held off Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 66-62 in the Southland Conference opener for both teams.
Sadler, who was 8-for-8 from the line for the game en route to 12 points, hit six consecutive from the foul line in a minute and a half to give the Sugar Bears (7-5, 1-0 Southland) a 63-59 lead with 3:30 left. Leading 65-61 in the final minute, the Sugar Bears turned the ball over to the Islanders (7-5, 0-1), who shaved a point off their deficit on a free throw by Ashley Darley with 25 seconds remaining.
After another Sugar Bear turnover with 18 seconds left, the Islanders called timeout to set up a play as they attempted to draw even. However, Sadler came up big once again, deflecting the 3-point attempt by Jasmine Shaw with seven seconds remaining.
From there, Courtney Duever was fouled and made the first of her two free throws to clinch the victory for UCA - the 750th in program history.
"I'm happy to get this win," said UCA head coach Sandra Rushing, who improved her record to 425-275 in the 700th game of her career. "We did try to give it away late, and Corpus Christi is a very good team, but I'm very happy with the win and proud of the way we fought. We made a lot of mistakes – especially mental mistakes, which I don't like – but I'll take it."
Duever had one of the best games of her career, scoring a season-high 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting and grabbing a season-high 15 rebounds, just one off of her career high. She also led the team with a season-high three blocks and had three steals to lead the team in that category as well. She also helped hold the Islanders' starting forward tandem to 5-of-19 shooting.
"Courtney did an outstanding job tonight," Rushing said. "Terai played great at times and made some big free throws for us. We shot 73 percent at the line, and we've got to continue to make free throws. That's going to be the difference in a lot of games."
The Sugar Bears shot 48.9 percent against the Islanders, who entered with the lowest field goal percentage allowed (38.3 percent) among all Southland teams.
Maggie Proffitt added 12 points and four rebounds for UCA, hitting 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Micah Rice led the Sugar Bears with four assists.
Jasmine Shaw had 13 points for the Islanders, with Kassie Jones adding 12 off the bench and Brittany Mbamalu adding 10.
UCA will wrap up its opening weekend of Southland play with league newcomer Houston Baptist on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Farris Center.
"I'm proud of our team, but we've got to have that carry over and have consistency," Rushing said. "We're 1-0, but there is a whole lot of basketball left to play. We'll enjoy this one for just a little bit, but we've got to come right back and get to work on Houston Baptist."
