CONWAY, Ark. – What started with celebration of the contributions of the senior class ended with heartbreak, as the Central Arkansas women's basketball team fell in overtime to Eastern Kentucky, 65-59.
Randrea Wright led Central Arkansas with a career-high 21 points, including seven in overtime.
Lucy Ibeh and
Hannah Langhi dominated the boards, pulling down 13 and 12, respectively, at one point outrebounding the entire Eastern Kentucky team.
Neither side came out with much offensive gusto, as the score stood 6-4 in favor of the visitors after five minutes of play. Battling back and forth for the rest of the quarter, Ibeh hit a layup with six seconds left to give the Sugar Bears a 16-12 lead after the first quarter. Ibeh finished the opening quarter with five rebounds.
The second quarter started just like the first, with neither team generating much offense for a large chunk of the opening of the quarter. Through the first five minutes of the second quarter, the teams combined for just eight points, with Central Arkansas extending the lead to six on a
Carley Hudspeth three. From there, Eastern Kentucky narrowed the lead to one, picking off a pass and taking it the length of the court, forcing a timeout by Central Arkansas.
Hanging onto a one-point lead, the Sugar Bears went on a 9-0 run to extend the lead to double-figures, capped by a layup from Wright. At the halftime buzzer, the lead stood at 34-24, Wright hitting double-digits in the first half. Ibeh had nine rebounds at the break, with four points and a steal to her name as well. Central Arkansas held the Colonels to 30 percent in the first half, allowing zero three pointers.
Continuation of play was suspended out of halftime, as a bat found its way into the building and loitered around the court. Despite the best efforts of support staff, the arena was held in suspense until the animal decided to leave of its own accord.
Out of the break, the Sugar Bears stayed focused despite the distraction and built the lead to as many as 13 points, following a Wright layup after Ibeh's tenth rebound. Eastern Kentucky responded by cutting the lead back under single digits with a 9-2 run to make it a six-point game. The Sugar Bears would split a pair of free throws to take a seven-point lead into the fourth, up 42-35.
Eastern Kentucky opened the final quarter of regulation with a 7-0 run, tying up the score with 7:26 remaining in the fourth. From there, neither team could build more than a three-point lead, and even then, only one three-point lead existed past the eight-minute mark. Needing a big stop on the last possession of regulation, the Sugar Bears shored up, forcing a contested shot at the buzzer that failed to convert. Once overtime came, Central Arkansas struggled to convert chances, falling behind until the final buzzer despite seven points from Wright.
The Sugar Bears have two more games on the schedule for next week, closing out the regular season at North Alabama on Thursday before the regular season finale at Lipscomb.
