CONWAY — Central Arkansas has won seven in a row, and is 8-1 at home this season. Southeastern Louisiana has dropped two in a row, and is 1-12 on the road. All that would appear to be in the Sugar Bears' favor on Saturday as they host the Lady Lions at 2:00pm – but, both teams know things are not always as they appear.
A little over a week ago, the Sugar Bears (16-4, 8-2 Southland) went to league-leading Stephen F. Austin and came away with a win over a team that had not lost all season in its home arena and was riding a 14-game winning streak. Three days later, the Lady Lions (4-17, 2-8) faced a Sam Houston State team that had not won a game all season, and the Bearkats walked away victorious with a 68-61 win.
Southeastern will come to the Farris Center looking for a jumpstart after going 2-14 over their last 16 games following a 2-3 start. The Lady Lions have struggled in their first season under head coach Errol Gauff, who inherits a program that was 11-47 the last two seasons, has not had a winning record since 2008-09, and lost four of its top five scorers from last season's team. Among this year's Southeastern squad, four of the top seven scorers are freshmen or sophomores. The Lady Lions have just one senior, 6-foot-1 forward Chey Stewart, who averages 5.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game.
The leader offensively is junior guard Taylin Underwood, who ranks 5th in the Southland in scoring at 17.5 points per game, with 49 3-pointers (of 172, 28.5 percent) – 7th in the Southland at 2.3 per game. Underwood is tied for the Southland lead for most points in a game this season, putting up 45 at Houston Baptist on Jan. 5. Freshman guard Charliee Dugas is the only other Lady Lion in double figures, averaging 10.1 for the season.
While the Sugar Bears lead the Southland and rank 5th nationally in scoring defense at just 52.5 points per game, Southeastern ranks last in the league and is 344th nationally out of 345 teams, giving up 81.9 per contest. The Lady Lions' scoring margin of -19.1 is 12th in the Southland and 339th nationally. Opponents have shot 45.1 percent against the Lady Lions this season (338th nationally), compared to just 35.1 percent for the Sugar Bears, who lead the league and rank 15th nationally.
Last season the Sugar Bears swept the Lady Lions, winning 80-58 in the Farris Center before a hard-fought 64-60 win in Hammond three weeks later. Central Arkansas leads the series 13-7, with the Sugar Bears winning the last five. Their last loss to the Lady Lions came in 2013 in Conway when Southeastern escaped with a 70-64 win. It was one of just two wins in the Farris Center for the Lady Lions, with the Sugar Bears leading 8-2 in games played in Conway.
In last year's games against Southeastern,
Maggie Proffitt averaged 27 points – including 32 in the win in Hammond – and hit 10 of her 21 3-point attempts (47.6 percent). In the 2015 meeting in the Farris Center,
Brianna Mullins posted her lone career triple-double with 24 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds.
Proffitt is coming off a 22-point outing in a 72-49 win at McNeese on Tuesday, in which she hit a season-high 6 of 9 from 3-point range. Mullins has averaged 12.5 points and 8.3 rebounds over her last four games, well above her averages of 6.8 and 3.8 before that stretch began, now sitting at 7.9 and 4.7 per game.
Saturday's game will lead off a doubleheader as the Central Arkansas and Southeastern men square off afterward. The game can be seen on the
Bear Nation Network or heard on
91.3 FM The Bear with Steve Owens, with pregame show beginning at 1:40.
