CONWAY — Riding a five-game winning streak, the Central Arkansas women's basketball team will look to make it six in a row on Thursday as the Sugar Bears host defending Southland Conference champion and preseason favorite Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m.
Playing their third game in five days, the Sugar Bears (9-5, 2-0 Southland) will face their toughest opponent of the stretch in the Ladyjacks (8-5, 1-1), who were selected first in the Southland's preseason polls by both the league coaches and sports information directors.
SFA comes into Thursday's game with an even mark in Southland play, defeating Southeastern Louisiana 78-71 in overtime on Monday after a 73-67 loss at McNeese State on Saturday in their conference opener. The Ladyjacks won four of their last five non-conference games, with wins over Arizona, Rice, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Southern Arkansas and a loss at No. 9 Baylor.
The Ladyjacks are led by preseason all-Southland first team selection Porsha Roberts, a 6-foot-2 senior center who averages 18.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. Taylor Ross, a 5-6 sophomore guard, is SFA's second-leading scorer at 16.1 points per game; and 5-11 senior forwardd Tierany Henderson averages 8.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Roberts had 29 points and Henderson 16 rebounds in the 'Jacks win at Arizona. Roberts is averaging 25 points and 11 rebounds per game in SFA's two Southland games, and Ross is averaging 19.5 points.
During the Sugar Bears' current winning streak,
Maggie Proffitt has averaged a team-best 16.4 points, with
Brianna Mullins scoring 13 and
Kendara Watts 12.4.
Kelsey McClure who had a career-high 18 in Tuesday's win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, has averaged 9 points and led the team in both rebounds (6.2) and assists (3.8) per game. McClure has also shot a team-best 46.2 percent from 3-point range during the streak, while Proffitt has hit on 41.2 percent, hitting nearly three per game.
The Sugar Bears and Ladyjacks split last season's meetings, with UCA winning 65-42 in Conway before falling 61-41 in Nacogdoches in the regular-season finale. In the UCA win, Proffitt had 13 points, hitting 3-of-4 from 3-point range, and Mullins had 9 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. The Sugar Bears shot 52 percent in the 2nd half of that game while holding SFA to 25 percent, outscoring the Ladyjacks 33-14 in the half to pull away, In the rematch in Nacogdoches, SFA held UCA to just 28.3 percent shooting, and the Sugar Bears shot just 41.2 percent from the free throw line. Roberts had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks in that game, and Henderson had 16 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks.
UCA is just 4-10 all-time against SFA, which has a Southland-best 16 conference championships and 15 Southland tournament titles. After starting 0-6 against the Ladyjacks, the Sugar Bears have split the last eight meetings, winning the last three meetings in the Farris Center.
