HAMMOND, La. — After a pair of wins at home last week by a combined 71 points, the Sugar Bears look to keep their hot streak going on the road Wednesday at Southeastern Louisiana in their second meeting of the season with the Lady Lions.
The Sugar Bears (21-4, 13-2 Southland) enter Wednesday's rematch with the Lady Lions (5-21, 3-12) riding a 12-game winning streak, longest in the program's Division I history and the 6th longest active streak in Division I, having won by an average of 17.5 points since suffering their last loss on Jan. 7 at Abilene Christian. In their most recent win, the Sugar Bears broke the program record for widest margin of victory in a Southland game – defeating Houston Baptist 83-39 on Saturday.
As they go for their 13th straight, they'll meet up with a Lady Lion team that fell 77-55 in the Farris Center on Feb. 4, a game in which Brianna Mullins had 25 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 9-of-12 at the free throw line to lead the Sugar Bears as they combined for a season-high 27 at the line.
Kierra Jordan had 18 points and 7 rebounds in 15 minutes for Central Arkansas in that game, with Taylor Baudoin putting up 11 and 8. Taylor Sells had 8 points and 6 assists – at the time her season high before logging 8 against Sam Houston State last week. Maggie Proffitt – who has averaged 17.1 points over the remainder of the winning streak – was held to 6 points. In the four games since,she has 18.3 per game.
Taylin Underwood had 25 points and 8 rebounds for for the Lady Lions, with no other player over 10. Underwood ranks 4th in the Southland this season in scoring at 18.1 points per game, including 20.1 in conference games.
With three games remaining in the regular season, the Sugar Bears rank among the top 10 nationally in scoring defense (4th) and field goal percentage (7th). Allowing just 52.6 points per game, the Sugar Bears are a point per game behind the Southland record of 51.6.
The Sugar Bears are also in the top 15 nationally in field goal percentage defense, ranking 12th as they allow opponents to shoot just 34.9 percent, close to the Southland record of 34.1 percent. Central Arkansas' scoring margin of +17.0 ranks 15th nationally.
The Sugar Bears will be looking to sweep the Lady Lions for the third straight season and have won seven of the last eight meetings between the teams, leading the all-time series 14-7, though SLU holds a 5-4 lead in games played in Hammond.
Sandra Rushing, who picked up the 500th win of her career two weeks ago at Nicholls and now has 502, will be going for her 100th win at Central Arkansas, in her 5th season in Conway. Since the start of last season, her teams have gone 49-8 (.860 winning percentage) including 29-4 (.879) in Southland games.
Pregame for Wednesday's broadcast begins on
91.3 FM The Bear with Steve Owens at 5:10.
After Wednesday's game, the Sugar Bears will return to the Farris Center for the final time of the season on Saturday as they host Stephen F. Austin at 4:00pm in a doubleheader with the UCA and SFA men to follow at 6:30.
