NATCHITOCHES, La. — After trailing through three quarters, Central Arkansas found its way in the fourth quarter on Saturday as the Sugar Bears outscored Northwestern State 20-10 in the final period to escape Prather Coliseum with a hard-fought 61-53 victory over the Lady Demons.

The Sugar Bears (15-6, 8-2 Southland) found themselves down 43-41 at the end of the third and without senior all-conference forward Taylor Baudoin, who had fouled out after playing just two minutes in the second half.

Thanks to their best defensive effort and highest offensive output of any quarter in the game, the Sugar Bears were able to assume control and pull away from the Lady Demons (6-14, 1-8) to avoid a second consecutive Southland loss.

In the final quarter, the Sugar Bears held NSU to 30.8 percent shooting – their lowest percentage for a quarter – while the Sugar Bears shot 40 percent and forced NSU into 6 turnovers in the period. The key difference was at the free throw line, where the Sugar Bears were 11 of 18 in the 4th quarter to just 2 of 3 for NSU.

In the game, the Sugar Bears were 22-for-34 (64.7 percent) while NSU was just 14 of 24 (58.3), with the difference at the line equaling the final margin.

Though it was a 3-pointer from Antonija Bozic that gave the Sugar Bears the lead to start the 4th quarter, it was largely the efforts of senior forward Kierra Jordan that helped keep it, as she scored 9 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in the quarter as the Sugar Bears eventually grew their lead out back out as far as 10 in the final minute, ending the game by outscoring NSU 13-5 over the final 3:23 after a 48-48 tie.

Jordan finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her 8th double-double of the season and 7th in 10 Southland games. Baudoin finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 17 minutes before fouling out.Kamry Orr led the Sugar Bears in scoring with 16 points, including 8-of-8 at the free throw line, while also grabbing 5 rebounds with a pair of assists in 31 minutes off the bench. Bozic had 12 points, knocking down 4-of-9 from 3-point range.

NSU got 13 points from Jocelyn Scott and 12 points from Victoria Miller. No Lady Demon had more than 6 rebounds as the Sugar Bears won the battle of the boards 37-26, including 11 offensive rebounds to 4 – converting those into 11 second-chance points.

The teams will meet again when the Lady Demons make the return trip to the Farris Center on March 3 in the regular-season finale. The Sugar Bears will return to action next Saturday when they go for the season sweep of Southeastern Louisiana, taking on the Lady Lions in Hammond at 2:00pm.

NOTES
• The Sugar Bears improve to 25-2 (.926) in road & neutral games against Southland teams over the last three seasons
• The win makes the Sugar Bears 6-0 in games following a Southland loss over the last three seasons, with an average margin of victory of 20 in those games
• The victory extends the Sugar Bears' streak over the Demons to three, including winning in Prather Coliseum in each of the last two seasons
• The 22 free throws made was the second highest of the season for the Sugar Bears, behind only the 25 in a 69-44 win over Sam Houston State on Jan. 3.