KATY, Texas — In 2016, as a freshman at Sam Houston State, Kamry Orr saw her season come to a close at the hands of Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference women's basketball tournament.
Fast forward three years, and once again Orr saw the Bearkats eliminated from the tournament by the Sugar Bears.
Just the way she wanted it.
The Central Arkansas senior turned in a brilliant performance against her former school on Thursday in the 2019 tournament's opening round – pouring in 29 points with 13 rebounds, 7 steals and 5 assists to lead the 8th-seeded Sugar Bears to a 76-71 victory over the 5th-seeded Bearkats, setting up a meeting with 4th-seeded Abilene Christian at 11:00am Friday in the Merrell Center.
"Kamry Orr did a great job of leading us today," said Central Arkansas head coach Sandra Rushing. "That was a tremendous game, and she's playing like you want a senior to play this time of year. I'm really proud of this team – they played with so much heart and passion today. After the Northwestern State game Saturday, we're on that bus and we think our season is over – we're planning our offseason and recruiting – and then we find out we're going to the tournament, and we get new life. It's a brand new season. We may come in seeded differently, but everybody is 0-0 now, and this time of year anything can happen. Kam has been in this situation before – when she was at Sam they came in as the 7th seed and made it to the championship game. I heard her tell the team 'we can do this' – and today, we did. And I couldn't be more proud."
The Sugar Bears (12-17) won for the first time in three tries this season against the Bearkats (16-13), correcting deficiencies in areas that had plagued them in the first two matchups – free throws and interior scoring.
In the 66-62 loss in Huntsville in January, the Sugar Bears were outscored 30-8 at the free throw line as they sent the Bearkats to the line for 43 attempts. In the 71-59 loss in Conway last Wednesday, the Bearkats outscored the Sugar Bears 37-20 in the paint.
Both of those areas were positives for the Sugar Bears on Thursday, as they outscored the Bearkats 20-8 from the line – getting 32 attempts to SHSU's 15 – and had 36 points in the paint while holding the Bearkats to 32.
"We took the lessons we'd learned and from those first two games and tried to correct those mistakes and we did a good job of that today," Rushing said. "My staff did a great job of preparing these girls for this game. We had talked to the girls about not letting Sam attack the rim – that's what they do, they're an attacking team. We weren't going to let them get to the rim the entire game. I thought we were really aggressive at times, but we got tired and lost our physicality some, but overall we did a much better job and I'm proud of how we executed the plan. Sam is a very athletic, well-coached team, and you have to play well to beat them and I thought today we did a good job of not beating ourselves."
After a 38-38 tie at the half, the Sugar Bears fell behind by as many as seven in the third quarter before going on a 7-0 run to pull even at 53 in the final minute – but SHSU would score with 11 seconds remaining in the period to go to the 4th up 55-53.
It would not last long, however, as the Sugar Bears wasted no time taking control of the game in the final quarter. Orr knocked down a 3-pointer, grabbed a defensive rebound, and converted a fast break layup in the first 44 seconds of the period to put the Sugar Bears ahead by three at 58-55. The lead would reach seven with 3:00 to go when Orr worked the ball inside to Hannah Langhi for a basket to make it 68-61.
With the Sugar Bears leading 70-63, the Bearkats quickly cut the deficit to three when Amber Leggett scored, got a steal on the ensuing inbounds, and laid it in to make the score 70-67 with 2:03 left.
Neither team would score again until Orr put the Sugar Bears back up by five with 58 seconds to play, only to see SHSU's Jenniffer Oramas drain a 3-pointer six seconds later to make it 72-70.
Orr and Shay Johnson would knock down four consecutive free throws on the Sugar Bears' next two possessions, while the Bearkats got just one from Oramas for the final points of the game. After a missed free throw from Orr, the Bearkats misfired on a 3-pointer but grabbed the offensive rebound only to come up empty again. They corralled the ball once again, but were off on a third consecutive shot and Orr grabbed her 13th rebound and ran out the clock to send the Sugar Bears on to the next round.
In addition to Orr's third double-double of the season with her season-high 29 points and career-high 13 rebounds, Langhi had 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, a block and a steal in 33 minutes off the bench while Alana Canady added 10 points in 15 minutes. Johnson had 6 points and tied her season high with 6 assists in 35 minutes off the bench. Maddie Goodner added 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in playing a team-high 38 minutes; Antonija Bozic and Alanie Fisher each added 6 points and 2 rebounds.
"Our freshmen gained a lot of experience today," Rushing said. "They got to play meaningful minutes in a postseason game, and they really contributed. Hannah came in and gave us some very valuable minutes, and we're going to need her in a big way again tomorrow. Maddie I thought did a lot of really good things. A lot of what she does for us doesn't show up in the stat line. She did a good job for us with inbounding the ball, keeping things calm and in order. And Alanie was big for us down the stretch, she made a couple of really key baskets for us in the fourth quarter that kept the momentum in our favor. Kam obviously had the huge game and led us, but we had a lot of people contributing and we're going to have to have all of them tomorrow against Abilene Christian."
With the win, the Sugar Bears have now advanced in the Southland tournament four years in a row – winning back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017 before making the semifinals last season – and are 6-1 in their last 7 games at the Merrell Center.
They will look to reach the semifinals for the fourth straight year when they meet up against the 4th-seeded Wildcats at 11:00am on Friday with the winner earning a date with regular-season champion Lamar on Saturday.
