CONWAY — For the second time in two weeks, the Sugar Bears were tasked with facing a first-place Southland Conference team riding a lengthy winning streak. For the second time in two weeks, the Sugar Bears walked away victorious.
After handing Stephen F. Austin its first conference loss of the season and ending the Ladyjacks' 14-game winning streak two weeks ago in Nacogdoches, the Sugar Bears struck again on Wednesday as they took down Abilene Christian 80-70 in the Farris Center, ending the Wildcats' winning streak at six games and, in turn, extending their own streak to nine while vaulting themselves to the top of the league title race with six games remaining.
The Sugar Bears (18-4, 10-2 Southland) move a half game ahead of the Wildcats (15-8), SFA and Lamar, who all sit at 9-2 in the conference standings.
After losing 83-76 at Abilene last month in the season's first meeting between the teams, the Sugar Bears looked to be in for a similar fate early on in the rematch as ACU got out to a 24-11 lead in the first quarter. But the Sugar Bears would whittle away at the Wildcat lead, trimming the deficit to two early in the second quarter before closing the half with seven points in the final 1:14 – including a 3-pointer from Olivia McWilliams just before the buzzer – to send Central Arkansas to the locker room with a 42-41 lead.
The Sugar Bears were hot out of the gate in the third quarter, opening with seven points in the first minute as they extended the lead to six. They would hold the Wildcats to just seven points in the quarter, taking a 57-48 lead into the final period, where they outscored the Wildcats 23-22 to hand ACU just its third loss in its last 29 Southland games.
In a clash of two of the top four 3-point shooters in Southland history, Central Arkansas' Maggie Proffitt outdueled ACU's Alexis Mason with 23 points and 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range to 11 points and 0-for-3 from long distance.
Taylor Baudoin had 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting along with a team-high 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Brianna Mullins scored 10 points and led the Sugar Bears with 8 assists and no turnovers. Raquel Logan added a pair of blocks to move within one of equaling Courtney Duever's program Division-I era career record of 96. Freshman guard Taylor Sells added 4 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists.
Bench play was big for the Sugar Bears on Wednesday as the Central Arkansas reserves outscored ACU's 24-2, led by 9 each from McWillams and Kierra Jordan. Angel Williams added 4 points – all at the free throw line – and Taylor Strickland had 2 points and 4 rebounds.
Suzzy Dimba led ACU with 33 points.
After ACU hit 13 of 26 from 3-point range in the first meeting, the Sugar Bears held the Wildcat shooters in check on Wednesday, limiting them to just 3 of 10. Led by Proffitt's four, the Sugar Bears were much more efficient on the perimeter, hitting 6 of 11 for 54.5 percent – their second-best percentage of the season behind only a 55.6 percent (5 of 9) effort at SFA.
The Sugar Bears won by double digits for the 15th time this season despite being outrebounded 34-31 and being at a huge disadvantage at the free throw line as ACU was 25 of 37 compared to just 12 of 15 for UCA. It was the most lopsided loss in conference play for ACU since 2015, a span of 30 games. The nine-game winning streak for the Sugar Bears is their fourth such streak over the last two seasons, as they had three separate nine-game streaks en route to 28 wins last season.
They'll look to make it 10 in a row – which would be their longest in five seasons under head coach Sandra Rushing, who will be gunning for the 500th win of her career – when they travel to Nicholls on Saturday. The Sugar Bears will be back in the Farris Center next Wednesday and Saturday, hosting Sam Houston State and Houston Baptist.
