LIVE STATS
AUDIO (begins at 5:10pm)
LAKE CHARLES, La. — Central Arkansas will look to keep its place atop the Southland Conference standings and extend the league's longest active winning streak today as the Sugar Bears visit McNeese State at the Lake Charles Civic Center at 5:30.
The Sugar Bears (12-6, 6-1 Southland) visit the Civic Center for the first time after winning three of the last four meetings with the Cowgirls at Burton Coliseum, which is hosting the Southwest District Rodeo this weekend – forcing the Cowgirls (11-7, 4-3) and Cowboys into the Civic Center for the second of three Southland doubleheaders to be played there.
Last season the Sugar Bears defeated the Cowgirls 77-69 in overtime, with Megan Herbert scoring 35 points and grabbing 17 rebounds while Courtney Duever added 13 points and 14 rebounds. It was the third straight year that the Sugar Bears defeated the Cowgirls in overtime, with the 2012 meeting in Conway going to two overtimes for a 71-70 UCA win, and the 2011 game at the Farris Center finishing 74-73 in the Sugar Bears' favor.
The landscape has changed significantly from those meetings, however, as Herbert and McNeese's twin duo of Ashlyn and Caitlyn Baggett – who combined for more than 3,700 points in leading the Cowgirls to a pair of NCAA Tournaments – have all graduated.
This year the Sugar Bears are led by Duever, who averaged 13.5 points and 12.5 rebounds per game in last season's meetings with the Cowgirls. This season she is averaging 18.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in conference play and 14.5 points and 9.1 rebounds overall, putting her near the top of the conference. Following consecutive double-doubles last week including a 25-point, 11-rebound effort in a 65-42 win over Stephen F. Austin, Duever received her league-leading third Southland Conference Player of the Week award.
Freshmen Brianna Mullins and Maggie Proffitt, who are the Sugar Bears' 2nd- and 3rd-leading scorers at 10.6 and 10.5 points per game, rank as the 2nd-highest scoring duo among all Southland Conference freshmen.
The Cowgirls still feature a Baggett sister in the form of sophomore guard Allison, who is averaging 17.5 points per game for the season and 15.6 per game in conference play. Senior forward Cecilia Okoye, who averaged 18.5 points and 5 rebounds per game against UCA last season, is the Cowgirls' main inside threat with 12 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. McNeese also gets 6.6 points and 6.7 rebounds from 6-foot-4 senior center NeTanya Jones. Sophomore guard Jayln Johnson is the team's third-leading scorer at 9.5 points per game and leads the team with 4.1 assists per game.
