KATY, Texas — Central Arkansas had its season come to a close in the quarterfinals of the Southland Conference Tournament on Friday as the 3rd-seeded Sugar Bears saw their lead slip away in the final minute and 7th-seeded McNeese State escaped with a 66-62 come-from-behind win.
With the Sugar Bears (18-12) holding a 60-56 lead with 1:02 remaining, the Cowgirls (19-12) came out of a timeout and got the ball to sophomore all-conference guard Allison Baggett for a long-range 3-pointer with 56 seconds left to pull McNeese within one. After Micah Rice misfired on a jumper for the Sugar Bears with 27 seconds left, McNeese guard Jayln Johnson raced to the other end of the floor for a layup and drew the 5th foul on Brittany Agee for a 3-point play to put the Cowgirls up 62-60 with 20 seconds to go.
Needing a basket to tie, the Sugar Bears worked the ball to Courtney Duever, 2014 Southland Conference Player of the Year, who 173 times this year had made a basket when the Sugar Bears needed. But this time she was off the mark as her shot near the basket caromed off the back of the rim with 10 seconds to go – and the Cowgirls made four free throws in the last seconds to secure the victory and advance to the semifinals as the tournament's No. 7 seed.
"I felt comfortable with the look," said Duever, who had 13 points in her final game in a UCA uniform. "MVPs are supposed to make those shots, and I didn't. I got the shot I wanted, I just had to knock it down. And I didn't."
"She didn't make that shot, but she's made a lot for us," said UCA head coach Sandra Rushing. "The sad thing about any time a season ends, and you're trying to get your program over the hump, is people always remember how you finish but don't remember how you started or what you went through. Yes we're hurt right now, but we want these players and this team to remember what we did accomplish this year and look forward to next year."
The 10-2 run by the Cowgirls in the final minute sent the Sugar Bears home after their first game for the third straight year and ran their losing streak in Katy to four games, ending a season in which the Sugar Bears finished third in the league and had a two-game lead with three games to play, after being picked to finish 6th in the preseason polls.
"I'm disappointed," Rushing said. "I felt like McNeese really took it to us. They've got a tremendous team and you've got to give them credit. I really respect what Brooks is doing and how hard her kids are playing. They've been here and they're experienced. I'm disappointed in how we came out, maybe it was first-game jitters. I just really think they wanted it more than us."
After falling behind as many as eight in the first half, the Sugar Bears put together a 10-0 run late in the first half and into the second to take a lead, and would hold on to it for much of the second half – going up by six when Rice scored seven consecutive points, and holding a seven-point lead with under eight minutes to go.
But the Cowgirls continued to hang around and chip away until taking the lead with 20 seconds to go – their first lead since the 11-minute mark.
The Sugar Bears were able to control much of the second half thanks to the play of their two seniors. Rice had 13 of her season-high 19 points in the second half, also getting four rebounds and four steals. Duever had nine of her 13 in the second half, and had five rebounds, a block and a steal.
It concludes a career for that pair in which they were part of 99 wins including one Southland Conference championship and two Division I national postseason tournament appearances, and combined for more than 2,400 points, a pair of all-conference selections and a pair of academic all-conference selections.
"I'm very proud of these two seniors and what they've done for the Sugar Bear program," Rushing said. "It's been a privilege to coach them. I'm really happy that I had the opportunity to coach Courtney for two years and Micah for a year and a half. I'm glad she came back to complete her fifth year. I'm proud of where this team is and what we accomplished with so many new players and freshmen. We needed to get here so they could experience it. I'm just sorry the outcome was what it was."
Though the two seniors are gone, the Sugar Bears return 10 players including the league's Freshman of the Year in Brianna Mullins along with classmate Maggie Proffitt, one of the league's top shooters as a freshman this season. Terai Sadler, the team's fourth-leading scorer behind Duever, Mullins and Proffitt, will return for her senior season as will Brittany Agee, who poured in a season-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds in Friday's loss. Jameka Watkins, who made 14 starts for the Sugar Bears this season, will be back as a junior.
"They're going to have to get into the gym and work hard," Duever said. "But they're a great group of girls and they're definitely going to win. Micah and I are leaving – but that doesn't mean much. Coach Rushing is a great head coach and they'll recruit and get girls in here who can win championships."
"I think players do it," said Rushing. "We've got some great players on this team and I'm proud of them. But I think McNeese had more depth and that's huge. They've got great players and a good bench. You've got to have good depth. And it's coming for us. I thought we had a great recruiting class this year that came in and helped us finish third and we were two minutes away from being first. It's a learning experience. People coming in have to realize that when you put on that uniform or get on that bus, it's about pride and what we represent and you have to play hard every night."
