BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Last season, the Central Arkansas women's basketball team opened the year with a 71-39 win over Alcorn State at home in the Farris Center. This season, the opening test promises to be much more difficult as the Sugar Bears begin the 2014-15 season in the Preseason WNIT, hitting the road to take on the Lady Toppers of Western Kentucky.
WKU, coming off a 24-9 season and NCAA Tournament appearance, enters the 2014-15 campaign picked second in the Conference USA preseason poll and receiving votes in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls. The Lady Toppers have a trio of Preseason All-CUSA players, led by CUSA Preseason Player of the Year Chastity Gooch, who averaged 18.4 points and 9 rebounds per game last season.
"We're really excited about having the opportunity to go open the season in the WNIT," said head coach Sandra Rushing, entering her third season at UCA. "It's obviously a big challenge for us – they're a talented, veteran team that is very well coached. They've got five starters back, four who averaged double figures last season. They're dominant inside, can shoot it outside, and have added some freshmen who will make an impact.
"But for us to go play a team of this caliber will only make us better," she said. "We know we've got a lot of work ahead of us, but we're going to go in and compete and hopefully it's a good experience for our players."
The Sugar Bears won 18 games last season and finished a win away from a Southland Conference regular season championship, but graduated Southland Conference Player of the Year Courtney Duever and 5th-year senior starter Micah Rice. Entering this season, 10 of the 11 players on the roster are in their first or second season in a Sugar Bear uniform. The only to have been in the program for more than one season is junior guard Jameka Watkins, who did not make the trip due to injury.
"We're young," Rushing said. "It's not something we're going to use an excuse, but there is no substitute for experience. We've still got some bad habits we need to break – turning the ball over, standing up on defense, etc., but it'll take time to do that. We're not where we want to be, but no coach is in mid November. We'll start figuring it out now, and hope to be playing our best ball in March."
Only two players – sophomore guards Brianna Mullins and Maggie Proffitt – averaged more than 25 minutes per game last season, and seniors Brittany Agee and Terai Sadler are the only other two to start more than three games.
Mullins averaged 10 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists en route to being named the 2014 Southland Conference Freshman of the Year last season, while Proffitt averaged 9.7 points and was 4th in the Southland in 3-pt. percentage, hitting 58 of 148 (.392).
"Having lost Courtney and Micah, the core of our team is our sophomores," Rushing said. "It's great that they're not freshmen anymore, but they're still just sophomores and very young. Agee and Terai both played a role last year, but that will need to expand this season. We're still figuring out our roles and working on our chemistry, but right now we don't have a lot because they haven't been on the floor together much. This is a tough challenge for us to open up with – it's not one of those easy games where you have the chance to figure a lot of things out and work through mistakes throughout the game and still win. We're going to need to be as sharp as we can be, and the first five minutes are going to be very important. We have to settle down and do the things we've been working on."
