HOUSTON, Texas — Coming off back-to-back losses to defending Southland Conference co-champions Stephen F. Austin and Lamar, the Sugar Bears look to get back on track at 7 p.m. on Thursday against another team looking to end a skid in Houston Baptist, which has dropped five in a row. 

After a five-game winning streak that included a 2-0 league start, the Sugar Bears (9-7, 2-2 Southland) have struggled in their last two outings, most recently suffering an 82-46 loss at Lamar on Tuesday. The Huskies (6-9, 0-4) have dropped their last five – though by an average of just 6.8 points per game, including a 60-59 loss at Texas Tech before four straight Southland losses to Northwestern State, McNeese, Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana. 

Thursday's game will be the first game back at Sharp Gym for HBU since their 78-68 loss to Northwestern State, coming up empty in their three-game road swing through Louisiana. The Huskies are 4-2 at home this season, but have yet to log a win against a Division I team at home. Of HBU's six wins, only two have come against D-I competition – a 61-56 win at Texas State and an 87-77 win at UTEP. 

HBU is led by preseason all-Southland selection Shanice Steenholdt, who leads the conference in both scoring and rebounding this season with averages of 18.5 and 10.9, making her one of just two players in the league to average a double-double so far this season. The 6-foot senior has scored in double digits in all but one game this season, and has topped 20 points seven times. Tayler Jefferson ranks fourth in the Southland with 3.7 assists per game, and Anna Strickland and Steenholdt are second and third, respectively, in blocks at 1.7 and 1.3 per game.

In last season's meeting in Houston, the Sugar Bears limited Steenholdt to 8 points and 8 rebounds as UCA rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit and got a basket from Courtney Duever with four seconds left to escape with a 57-55 win. 

UCA has won the last four meetings between the teams, owning a 4-1 record in the series with HBU's lone win coming in Houston in 2008. The Sugar Bears also defeated the Huskies 67-54 in Conway last season, a game in which Jameka Watkins recorded her career high of 17 points. Watkins had a career-best 8 assists in the later meeting with the Huskies.