CONWAY — Maggie Proffitt scored 18 first-half points as Central Arkansas jumped on Alcorn State early and never let up, defeating the Lady Braves 58-35 in the Farris Center Tuesday night.
It was the lowest point total allowed this season by the Sugar Bears, and the fewest scored by the Lady Braves, who averaged 62 points in their first two games.
"I'm very happy with the win tonight," Central Arkansas head coach Sandra Rushing said. "I saw a lot of good things. We're playing hard, the defense is solid, but it's going to take some time to get our chemistry on offense. But overall, I'm very happy with our performance."
Proffitt, who played only the first couple minutes of the second half, was instrumental in helping build the early lead for the Sugar Bears (3-1), scoring 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the opening quarter as the Sugar Bears ran out to a 17-8 lead.
The Lady Braves (1-2) never got closer than eight the rest of the way, and the Sugar Bears put the game away in the third quarter by holding Alcorn to just five points on 25 percent shooting, taking a 45-26 lead into the final quarter.
From there, the Sugar Bears extended the lead out to as many as 24 en route to a win over the Lady Braves for the fourth consecutive season. It marks the lowest point total the Sugar Bears have held the Lady Braves to in the series, besting the previous low mark of 36 set last season. In all four meetings, Alcorn State has been held to fewer than 40 points.
"I didn't put Maggie back in because her shoulder was sore and we wanted to hold her out," Rushing said. "There was no need to put her back in – we don't want to take a chance on that. But we had other players step up. How about Jameka Watkins? I thought she had an excellent game offensively and defensively, and you look at the free throw line and she was 6-for-6. That's what you want your seniors to do. Brianna Mullins didn't have a good night offensively, but I thought she did a good job with her rebounding and defense, and that's not always on the stat sheet."
For the second straight game, the Sugar Bears had their way on the boards, outrebounding the Lady Braves by 12 after getting 48 to Murray State's 27 in last Saturday's win. On Tuesday, the Sugar Bears converted their 13 offensive rebounds to 11 second-chance points, holding Alcorn to just two off of eight offensive boards.
Proffitt was the only Sugar Bear to reach double figures in scoring, though six different players had at least five, with Watkins and Taylor Baudoin adding 8 each. Baudoin, who had recorded consecutive double-doubles against Tennessee and Murray State, had 7 rebounds to go with her 8 points in 23 minutes on Tuesday. Raquel Logan added 6 points and 8 rebounds, and Brianna Mullins added 7 rebounds and a team-high 4 assists. Brianna Tolliver led the Lady Braves with 10 points. Norianna Haynes, Alcorn's leading scorer at 23 points per game coming in, was held to just 5 points on 2-for-17 shooting.
The Sugar Bears won despite shooting just 37 percent from the field, going just 13-45 (28.9 percent) aside from Proffitt's 7-of-9. UCA made up for it at the free throw line, shooting 70.6 percent, and on the defensive end as they held the Lady Braves to just 28.6 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from 3-point range.
"The reason we're struggling offensively is we're taking outside shots we shouldn't be," Rushing said. "We're not making defenses go from one side to the other. And we're trying to attack too much when it's not there. We're going to be able to attack a lot better than what we are right now. This team has so much potential, we just have to keep working on the little things. You're not going to shoot the ball well every night, but our defense and rebounding can be consistent."
The Sugar Bears will host Murray State in the Farris Center on Saturday in a rematch of last weekend's game in Kentucky, then end their three-game homestand next Thursday against Crowley's Ridge.
