CONWAY - Four days after defeating Sam Houston State on the road in Huntsville, Central Arkansas will get another look at the Bearkats tonight as the teams meet up in a rematch in the Farris Center at 7 p.m.
The Sugar Bears (22-3, 12-2 Southland), winners of three straight (all on the road, where they have won 10 in a row) return to the Farris Center with a chance to clinch one of the top two seeds in next month's Southland Conference Tournament in Katy, Texas, earning them a double bye to the tournament semifinals.
With four games remaining, the Sugar Bears - ranked No. 22 in this week's College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 - are three games up on both Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin in the loss column for the top seed, and own the tiebreaker over the Ladyjacks with a win in Nacogdoches earlier this season.
The Sugar Bears remain a game back of Abilene Christian for a piece of the Southland's regular season championship, with the Wildcats sitting 13-1 with a road game at Houston Baptist (7-7) tonight before wrapping up with three straight home games against New Orleans (4-10), Incarnate Word (3-11) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (6-9).
To secure one of the top seeds, the Sugar Bears will have to defeat the Bearkats for the second time in less than a week - a feat they accomplished last season with three- and eight-point wins five days apart.
The Sugar Bears went through a similar scenario earlier this season with a home-and-home series against Murray State a week apart back in November. That experiment worked well for Central Arkansas, as the Sugar Bears got the sweep with a pair of 10-point wins.
In Saturday's win at SHSU, also by 10 points, the Sugar Bears took the lead late in the second quarter and held it the rest of the way, pulling away late in the fourth quarter after fending off a scrappy Bearkat squad that trailed by just three at one point in the final frame.
Angela Beadle, a 6-foot-3 center, had 23 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks in that game, with Shernise Robertson - the Southland's leading scorer at 18 points per game - adding 15 on 4-for-13 shooting. Even with the Sugar Bears shooting just under 50 percent from the field for the game, SHSU was able to keep it close by hitting 5 of 10 from 3-point range and outscoring the Sugar Bears 20-13 at the free throw line.
Maggie Proffitt led all scorers with 25 points, knocking down 3 of 6 from 3-point range, and Taylor Baudoin added 19 points and 7 rebounds en route to earning her first Southland Conference Player of the Week award after averaging 19.5 points and 8 rebounds in the Sugar Bears' two wins. Jameka Watkins added 10 points and 6 assists, and Brianna Mullins had a season-high 11 assists in the win. Proffitt has averaged 16.2 points per game during conference play, ranking 9th in the league. Mullins and Watkins are tied for 4th in conference play at 3.9 assists per game.
A win tonight would move Sugar Bear coach Sandra Rushing into sole possession of second place on the school's career wins list, ahead of Matt Daniel (72-50 from 2008-2012) and trailing longtime coach Ron Marvel (494-218 from 1980-2004, 2008).
Following tonight's game, the Sugar Bears will travel to Southeastern Louisiana for a 1:00pm game on Saturday before returning home next Wednesday and Saturday to take on Nicholls and McNeese in the final two games of the regular season.
