JACKSON, Miss. — Alanie Fisher had her best game as a Sugar Bear with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists in 26 minutes off the bench – but Jackson State scored 23 4th-quarter points and outscored Central Arkansas by 10 in the second half as the Sugar Bears fell to the Lady Tigers 65-56 on Tuesday.
"I've got to step back and evaluate things," Central Arkansas head coach Sandra Rushing said. "I'm responsible. I can promise you we're going to play harder than this. The bottom line is, we beat ourselves. We absolutely beat ourselves. But Alanie Fisher did exactly what I knew she was capable of doing when we signed her. That kid played with so much heart, she got to the boards – she's going to the boards harder than our post people. I'm so disappointed in our post people. This was embarrassing – the last three ballgames have been embarrassing with our effort."
The Sugar Bears (2-1) held a 28-27 lead at the half and would go up by as many as five early in the third quarter, but the Lady Tigers (1-2) inched ahead with 3:19 to go in the period, and took the lead for good with 2:02 in the third – breaking a 39-all tie on a Chelsey Causey layup.
The Sugar Bears trailed by just two after a pair of Kamry Orr free throws with 8:51 to go, but JSU responded with five straight in a span of 16 seconds to push the lead to seven. The Sugar Bears would get it back to three with 6:46 left, but JSU again answered with five consecutive points to go up by eight, 54-46, with 4:56 to play and the Sugar Bears would not draw any closer than six the rest of the way.
JSU shot 41.2 percent (21 of 51) from the field and hit 6 of 15 (40 percent) from 3-point range, while the Sugar Bears were 22 of 60 (36.7 percent) overall and 2-for-15 (13.3 percent) from beyond the arc.
Despite being shorthanded without the services of senior Antonija Bozic and juniors Alexyse Thomas and Maddie Goodner – who all missed the game due to injury – the Sugar Bears got 34 of their 56 points from the bench, with Keturah Bingham getting 7; Carley Hudspeth 6 on 3-for-3 shooting in 5 minutes; and Shay Johnson 5. Hannah Langhi added 5 points and 6 rebounds in 17 minutes; and Mekaylan Hicks had 4 points, 5 rebounds and a career-high 4 blocks.
JSU was led by Christina Ellis' 19 points, 15 from D'Asia Mitchell on 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range, and 14 from Marneisha Hammer.
The Sugar Bears return to play on Saturday when they host South Alabama in the Farris Center at 2:00pm.
