KATY, Texas — With their win at Northwestern State last weekend in the regular season finale, the Sugar Bears recorded their 15th straight victory – keeping their streak the 4th longest active in Division I – and claimed their second Southland Conference regular season championship. This week, they made their season debut in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25, entering the poll at No. 24. They had four players recognized among the All-Southland Conference awards on Tuesday, with a fifth receiving honorable mention, and had the league's Coach of the Year.
All of that is great.
None of it matters now.
The regular-season title behind them, the top-seeded Sugar Bears (24-4, 16-2 Southland) turn their attention to claiming their second consecutive Southland tournament championship and making a return trip to the NCAA tournament as they meet up with 5th-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1:00pm on Saturday in the first semifinal game, with the winner awaiting the victor of the matchup between No. 2 Lamar and No. 3 Stephen F. Austin in Sunday's championship.
Saturday's game can be heard on
91.3 FM The Bear, with pregame beginning at 12:40, and seen on
ESPN3, streaming live on WatchESPN and the ESPN app.
SOUTHLAND TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
The Sugar Bears return to Katy and the Merrell Center for the 7th consecutive year, where they are 4-5 all time in the league tournament – including going 2-0 last year as they defeated No. 4 McNeese and No. 7 Sam Houston State en route to their first league tournament title and trip to the big dance, where they went on to face 8th-ranked Louisville in the first round.
The first hurdle they must clear is an Islander team that scored a minor upset over 4th-seeded New Orleans on Friday, winning 88-77 after leading by as many as 22 in the second half. The Islanders, who improve to 14-17 on the season after finishing 8-10 in Southland play, were 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) from 3-point range and made 31 of 39 free throws (79.5 percent) in defeating the Privateers for the first time this season after losing 75-54 in their lone regular season meeting back on Dec. 31.
Kassie Jones had 26 for the Islanders, and Brittany Mbamalu added 22 while Camesha Davis narrowly missed a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds.
Central Arkansas and A&M-Corpus Christi met once this season, a 49-41 Sugar Bear win in Corpus Christi on Jan. 14. In that game, the Islanders held the Sugar Bears to just five first-quarter points, but Central Arkansas returned the favor in the 2nd with a 15-5 advantage to take a 20-17 lead into the locker room. The Sugar Bears eventually led by as many as 14 midway through the fourth quarter before hanging on for the eight-point victory.
The Sugar Bears shot 45.7 percent from the field that day and held the Islanders to just 28.3 percent shooting, but the game was kept close as the Islanders were 13 of 20 at the free throw line while the Sugar Bears got only 5 attempts, making 4.
Mbamalu led the Islanders with 16 points in that game, and had 7 of their 13 field goals, with the rest of the team combining to shoot 6 of 30 (20 percent). The Sugar Bears got 16 points and 8 rebounds from Taylor Baudoin and 15 points from Maggie Proffitt.
The Sugar Bears will be looking to become the second consecutive repeat Southland tournament champion after Northwestern State won in both 2014 and 2015, and the fourth in the past decade as McNeese won in 2011 and 2012; and former member UTSA in 2008 and 2009.
The No. 1 seed has won 6 of the last 10 tournaments and has been in the championship game in 7 of the last 10. The Sugar Bears were the first 1 seed to take home the trophy since 2013, as Northwestern State won as the 4 and 6 seed in '14 and '15.
With a win on Saturday, the Sugar Bears would advance to Sunday's championship game, which will air at noon on CBS Sports Network.
