CONWAY — Central Arkansas came up just short in its goal to claim both the program's and Southland Conference's first-ever national postseason tournament championship, suffering a 54-50 defeat to Yale in the championship game of the Women's Basketball Invitational on Thursday in front of a season-high 3,526 fans in the Farris Center.
The Sugar Bears (25-10) had a chance in the final minute, with the game tied 50-50 with 56 seconds remaining after a Taylor Baudoin jumper, but a layup and pair of free throws from Yale's Jen Berkowitz would be the only points of the final 55 seconds as the Bulldogs (19-13) escaped with the win and the WBI championship.
After Baudoin's tying shot, Berkowitz scored and was fouled but missed the accompanying free throw, leaving the Sugar Bears down two with 29 seconds remaining. After a timeout with 25 seconds left, the Sugar Bears worked for a final tying shot, but lost the ball out of bounds with five seconds remaining to turn it back over to Yale. The Sugar Bears instantly fouled Berkowitz on the ensuing inbound, but this time she would sink both to effectively end the hopes of a Central Arkansas comeback.
Just as they had done against Nevada in the WBI semifinal, the Sugar Bears led 27-24 at the half and never trailed. And just as they had done against Nevada, they saw the lead slip away in the third quarter. But this time, they were unable to regain and maintain the advantage – going ahead only briefly in the fourth quarter on an Angel Williams 3-pointer before Yale reclaimed the lead just 19 seconds later.
The Sugar Bears would score just six points over the final 7:10 – all by Baudoin – as the Bulldogs held Central Arkansas to just 30 percent shooting in the second half and 35.8 percent for the game.
In her final game in a Sugar Bear uniform, Baudoin scored a game-high 21 points – her 10th 20-point game of the season and 30th game of the season in double figures, tying the program's Division I record set by Megan Herbert in 2010-11. Baudoin finishes her three-year career at Central Arkansas with 1,226 points and 628 rebounds – the 18th-leading scorer in program history and 5th in the Division-I era, and 15th on the career rebounding list and 3rd in the D-I era.
Senior center Kierra Jordan closed out her career with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals; while Williams finished wit 3 points and 2 rebounds in the final game of her four-year career as a Sugar Bear.
The loss was just the Sugar Bears' sixth in 47 games on their home floor over the last three seasons, and leaves them 8-4 in postseason play during that same period.
By holding Yale to 54 points, the Sugar Bears finish the season with a Southland Conference record for lowest scoring average allowed, giving up just 50.9 points per game – beating the old mark of 51.6 set by former member UT Arlington in 2006, and finish second in the nation this season.
The Sugar Bears also finish with 25 wins for the third consecutive season, just one of 17 (out of 349) Division I programs to do so over the last three seasons, and have averaged 26.3 wins during that time and 21.3 over the last nine years.
