CONWAY — With five games remaining in the regular season, Central Arkansas currently sits in 7th place in the Southland Conference standings, two games ahead Sam Houston State, which currently holds the 8th and final position for next month's Southland Conference Tournament.
Those two teams will clash in the next two games as they jockey for tournament seeding, with the first meeting coming at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Farris Center before the rematch in Huntsville, Texas next Thursday. Saturday's game will be the first part of a doubleheader, with the UCA and SHSU men to follow.
The Sugar Bears (14-11, 7-6 Southland) are coming into Saturday's game off a two-point loss at home on Wednesday to McNeese State, meanwhile the Bearkats (6-17, 5-8) have lost three straight – dropping contests to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Abilene Christian and Houston Baptist by an average of 11 points per game. The Bearkats' last win came on Jan. 31 at home against Houston Baptist, a 74-67 win.
That game was the final game of a seven-game streak in which Shernise Robertson had scored at least 21 points in each game, averaging 27.6 per game during that span. Robertson, a 5-foot-6 junior guard, leads the league in scoring at 19.0 for the season, including an average of 22.0 in Southland play.
Sophomore guard Taylor Dorsey is averaging more than 13 points per game during conference play for the Bearkats, who are fifth in the league in scoring at 64.2 points per game. The Sugar Bears are 12th at 56.1, but are second in scoring defense at 58.4. The Bearkats are 10th at 67.1 per game.
The trio of Maggie Proffitt, Kendara Watts and Brianna Mullins have led the charge for the Sugar Bears, combining to average 36.1 of the Sugar Bears 57.9 points per game this season, led by Proffitt's 13.9 per game. That trio has connected on nearly 40 percent of their 3-point attempts this season, hitting 107 of 288 (37.2 percent).
Saturday's game is the next-to-last game in the Farris Center this season for the Sugar Bears, who will host Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 28 before finishing the regular season on the road at Nicholls and McNeese State.
