NATCHITOCHES, La. — With the final berth in the Southland Conference Tournament at stake on Saturday, Central Arkansas was outscored 50-39 in the second half as Northwestern State rallied from 14 down to defeat the Sugar Bears 78-74 in Prather Coliseum.
But, nevertheless, the Sugar Bears are headed to Katy.
By virtue of Houston Baptist upsetting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and moving into a tie for 12th place in the league standings with Southeastern Louisiana, the tiebreaker between the Sugar Bears and Lady Demons came down to how both teams fared this season against New Orleans. The Sugar Bears were 1-0 against the Privateers with a 62-60 win in New Orleans, while Northwestern State was 0-2 against the Privateers.
And thus, the Sugar Bears (11-17, 6-12 Southland) qualify for the 8-team tournament for the 9th consecutive season where, as the 8 seed, they will face 5th-seeded Sam Houston State at 11:00am Thursday at the Merrell Center.
"It's not the way we wanted to get there, but I'm very happy and excited about the chance to go to postseason," Central Arkansas head coach Sandra Rushing said. "I'm happy for our seniors to have a chance to go out on a better note, and really I'm happy for this program. This program has a tradition of success and going to postseason and winning games in March, and even though we got in with a loss, we're in, and we've got a chance to keep that tradition going."
"We've got new life," she said. "If this doesn't energize us – if we don't go in excited and play hard and smart, then we'll be turning around and coming right back home. This team should be excited to have another shot at it. They know where we're at as a team right now, and we've got a few days to prepare and change that mindset."
In Saturday's loss, the Sugar Bears ran out to a 14-point lead in the second quarter, but NSU (11-18, 6-12) had whittled the lead to seven at the half, trailing 35-28. The Lady Demons took the lead midway through the third quarter at 45-44, and the teams went back and forth the next several minutes before NSU went on an 11-2 run to stretch their lead to 9 with 7:47 to go.
The lead grew to 12 with 3:32 to play, but the Sugar Bears responded with a 12-3 run to make it a 3-point game at 75-72 with 26 seconds to play on a pair of free throws from Savannah Lowe. After NSU's Jasmyn Johnson made one of two on the other end, the Sugar Bears got it to two at 76-74 on a jumper from Kamry Orr with 20 seconds to play.
But after another pair of NSU free throws to push the Lady Demon lead to four, the Sugar Bears came up empty on their next possession and NSU was able to grab the rebound and run out the final seconds for the win and put the Sugar Bears' season in doubt before HBU's win shook up the standings.
"We shouldn't even be in this situation," Rushing said. "We had the opportunity to control our own destiny, and we didn't get it done. I hope this is a lesson to be learned for the returners. This is the time of year you expect to be playing your best basketball and we haven't done that lately. We've been beating ourselves, and we've got to be consistent with our energy. When somebody punches us in the face, we have to be mature enough to handle that, and I don't feel like we were mature enough today and haven't been throughout the season."
Four Sugar Bears finished in double figures, led by a career-high 19 points from Hannah Langhi. Orr had 16 to go with 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. Alana Canady had 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Maddie Goodner added 10 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
NSU got 28 points from RaVon Nero and 19 from Nautica Grant.
The Sugar Bears now turn their sights to a Sam Houston State team that defeated Central Arkansas twice in the regular season, winning 66-62 in Huntsville, Texas on Jan. 9 and 71-59 on Wednesday in the Farris Center.
"We're very familiar with Sam Houston," Rushing said. "We know their personnel, know what they run … we've just got to hit our open shots and can't turn the ball over because they're going to apply pressure. We know what we have to do to win – we just haven't done it yet. But we're excited to get another opportunity at it in the postseason."
