HOUSTON, Texas — Central Arkansas was held to its lowest point total of the season as the Sugar Bears fell 58-37 at Houston Baptist on Thursday, suffering their third consecutive Southland Conference loss.
The Sugar Bears (9-8, 2-3 Southland) had their lowest-scoring half of the season in the first half as they put up just 16 points, falling behind by 12 at the break. After two quick baskets to start the second half, the Sugar Bear rally stalled as HBU (7-9, 1-4) held UCA to just one field goal over the next six minutes and outscored the Sugar Bears 13-5 over that span to extend their lead to 18.
After a
Brianna Mullins 3-pointer, HBU scored seven straight to push its lead over 20, eventually building a lead as large as 23 points with just under 6:00 to play. The Sugar Bears briefly cut the deficit to 19 on a
Taisiya Novokreschenova free throw, but were unable to piece together any runs as they were held without a field goal over the last 7:39 and were just 5-18 (27.8 percent) in the half.
For the game, the Sugar Bears shot a season-low 27.5 percent (11 of 40), and were out-rebounded 39-25. The Huskies had 20 offensive rebounds, scoring 20 second-chance points to the Sugar Bears' 10.
HBU's Shanice Steenholdt, a first team All-Southland selection last season and this preseason, had a game-high 25 points as the Huskies scored 36 points in the paint to 12 for the Sugar Bears. Steenholdt, who leads the Southland in both scoring and rebounding at 18.5 points and 10.9 rebounds, had her 10th double-double of the season – pulling down 12 rebounds. Steenholdt also had five of HBU's eight blocked shots, and added three assists and two steals.
Mullins led the Sugar Bears with 11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals. She and
Jameka Watkins combined for all three of UCA's assists, with Mullins recording one and Watkins two. For the second straight game the Sugar Bears committed more than 20 turnovers, following up the 29 at Lamar on Tuesday with 21 on Thursday.
Maggie Proffitt had 9 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals for UCA, and Watkins had 5 points, a team-high 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
The Sugar Bears return to action next Wednesday at New Orleans, then return home to take on Nicholls on Jan. 24 and Northwestern State on Jan. 28.
