CONWAY, Ark. – Tied at the half, the Central Arkansas women's basketball team was unable to build off of a strong pair of opening quarters, falling to Jacksonville State by a score of 64-47 Wednesday.
 
Hannah Langhi and Randrea Wright led the Sugar Bears with 13 points each, with Langhi adding four rebounds, three assists and a block, while Wright put up a pair of boards and three assists. Rita James dropped a season-best seven points and five rebounds.
 
Central Arkansas jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead to open things up, with a jumper from Wright and Langhi's sixth triple of the season. From there, the Gamecocks stormed back, taking the lead in a hurry after a flurry of baskets, peaking at nine points with 1:43 left in the quarter. Undeterred, the Sugar Bears cut the lead down to four with five-straight points to end the quarter, trailing by four after one.
 
Galvanized by the first quarter, the Sugar Bears came out with a pop in the second, trading baskets with the 13-3 Gamecocks, unintimidated by their ASUN West-leading opponent. Langhi scored eight points in the quarter, shooting 4-for-4 from the field on a series of jumpers and post moves. Down seven points with under four minutes to play, Central Arkansas went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to one with 90 seconds left. As the clock dwindled down, Langhi ripped the ball away from a Gamecock, Ruth Balogun pulled down an offensive rebound on the other side, only to get fouled with 1.3 seconds left in the half. Knocking down one of her attempts, the Sugar Bears outscored Jacksonville State by four in the second quarter, tying things up at 32-all after 20 minutes of action, despite the absence of the team's leading scorer and rebounder, Lucy Ibeh.
 
The Sugar Bears shot 70 percent in the second quarter, knocking down seven of ten shots from the floor, including Carley Hudspeth's team-leading 15^th three-pointer of the season. After such an accurate second, Central Arkansas posted a 58 percent mark from the floor. Wright had nine points at the break, while Langhi led all scorers with 13.
 
As great as the first half was, the second half was the opposite. Shots quit falling in, turnovers started piling up, and the Gamecocks reclaimed the lead, never to surrender it again. After being outscored 23-7 in the third, the defense locked back up in the fourth, holding the visitors to just nine points on 27 percent shooting, but it was too little, too late. Central Arkansas, typically a great rebounding team, was outrebounded for the first time in a month,
 
The loss moves the Sugar Bears to 6-9 on the season, with a 1-3 record in ASUN play. Central Arkansas remains at home for the next two games, starting with the Liberty Flames on Saturday. Tip-off at the Farris Center is scheduled for 1 p.m.