CONWAY — Courtney Duever turned in one of the most dominating performances in Central Arkansas history on Saturday, scoring 24 of her career-high 36 points in the second half to propel the Sugar Bears past Oral Roberts 62-54 to keep UCA alone in first atop the Southland Conference standings and clinch the Sugar Bears' spot in the Southland tournament in Katy, Texas.
With the Sugar Bears (17-8, 11-3 Southland) mired in a slump in which they'd been outscored 21-8 by the Golden Eagles (7-17, 6-8) over a nine-minute span, Duever stepped in and took command of the game – scoring 15 points in the final 6:13 as the Sugar Bears closed it out with an 18-6 run for their first win in eight tries against the Golden Eagles since moving to Division I.
"I'm very happy with the win and very proud of Courtney and how she played at the end of the game," said UCA head coach Sandra Rushing. "This team is playing with a lot of heart and pride, and I'm very proud of the way they're fighting. They've got some fight and pride to them and I'm happy with where we're at. But we've still got several games to play and a lot could happen, so we need to finish the deal and not relax. We're not going to let them relax."
After falling behind by four with 6:48 left, the Sugar Bears cut it to two on a jumper by Terai Sadler 18 seconds later. Then, on ORU's ensuing possession, Duever went to work – getting a steal that led to a pair of free throws to tie the game.
She put the Sugar Bears ahead to stay at the 5:11 mark, converting the first of her three 3-point plays in crunch time to make it 51-48. She got her second two minutes later to increase the UCA lead to 55-50, and then all but sealed the deal by jumping in front of a Teana Ogden pass, driving the length of the floor and getting the basket and free throw to put the Sugar Bears ahead by seven with just 1:05 left. After an Atoe' Jackson free throw for ORU, Duever closed out the scoring with two free throws in the final 15 seconds.
The 36 points easily surpassed her previous career high of 28 and was the most scored in Southland conference competition this season. It ties the most by a Southland player in any game this season, matching Shanice Steenholdt's 36 against Huston-Tillotson, and is the most for a Southland player against a Division I team. It also ties the UCA record for most points against D-I competition, matching Megan Herbert's total against Tulsa in December of 2009.
Duever also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season and eighth in 14 conference games. She upped her scoring and rebounding averages in conference play to 18.1 and 10.4 – making her the second-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder. At 1.5 steals per game, she is just outside the league's top 10 in that category as well.
Freshman guard Brianna Mullins added 11 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and a block for the Sugar Bears.
ORU got 20 points from freshman guard Alexus Wilson, and Bernadett Balla had 8 points and 10 rebounds.
The Sugar Bears will play their final home games of the season next week, hosting Sam Houston State on Thursday and second-place Lamar (15-10, 10-4) on Saturday in the final home game in the careers of Duever and Micah Rice.
