LAKE CHARLES, La. — Central Arkansas had its best game of the season at the free throw line, outrebounded its opponent for the sixth straight game, and won the turnover battle by seven as the Sugar Bears scored a 70-57 victory at McNeese on Saturday for their eighth consecutive victory over the Cowgirls.
"Any time you can get a road win, I'm going to take it," said Central Arkansas head coach
Sandra Rushing, whose team has won two of its first three Southland Conference road games and five of their last six games overall. "It's huge to be able to go on the road in conference and come out with a win, and it's good to see this team be able to overcome adversity and do that. We've put two pretty complete games together back to back, and that's great to see. We saw some good things today, and we've seen some other good things lately – I'm just ready for it to all come together. I think the free throws and rebounding was the difference for us today. Those are things we have to continue to do, because we've got some talented teams coming up on the schedule and it's not going to get any easier. But I'm happy to get this one today."
The Sugar Bears (7-6, 3-1 Southland), who came into the game shooting just 57.4 percent from the free throw line for the season, knocked down 24 of 28 (85.7 percent) on Saturday while limiting McNeese to 12 attempts; outscored the Cowgirls (3-9, 0-3) 19-8 in points off turnovers; and outrebounded McNeese 38-32 en route to the victory. The catalyst was senior guard
Taylor Sells – a 60 percent free throw shooter coming into the game – who was perfect on 10 attempts at the line on her way to a career-high 22 points to go with 7 rebounds and 4 assists while playing the full 40 minutes.
After an
Alana Canady layup gave Central Arkansas a 9-7 lead midway through the first quarter, the Sugar Bears would maintain the lead the rest of the way – holding the advantage for more than 36 minutes. After a 19-14 first quarter, the Sugar Bears and Cowgirls struggled offensively in the second quarter – combining to shoot just 6 of 25 (24 percent) from the field as Central Arkansas outscored McNeese 9-7 to take a 28-21 halftime lead. The Cowgirls hung around in the third quarter, as the Sugar Bears would hold a slim 15-13 scoring advantage in the period to go into the final quarter leading by nine. After the Sugar Bears opened the scoring in the fourth to go up by 11, McNeese would trim its deficit to five on two occasions – but the Sugar Bears scored 13 points in the final 2:09 to put the Cowgirls away.
Briana Trigg had a season-high 12 points and 6 rebounds for the Sugar Bears, while Canady added 12 and 5.
Hannah Langhi added 8 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and tied her career high with 3 steals, and
Savanna Walker had 7 points and 3 assists. McNeese was led by Damilola Balogun's 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Sugar Bears are back at home in the Farris Center for their next two, hosting New Orleans at 7:00pm on Wednesday and Sam Houston State at 1:00pm Saturday.
