CONWAY, Ark. – Great starts to both halves lifted the Sugar Bear basketball team to its seventh home win Wednesday night, as Central Arkansas defeated Queens 76-57.
Randrea Wright led the way with 16 points, one of three Sugar Bears in double-figures.
The junior guard had one of her best games of the season against the Royals, shooting 50 percent from the floor and beyond the arc, and played smothering defense at the point of attack, coming away with a game-high three steals. Her efforts led the Sugar Bears to something that hasn't happened since 2017-18: winning the first seven home games of the season. That year, Central Arkansas was 15-3 in the Farris Center, which included four games of hosting the CBI.
"It's good to get another home win, our team has performed well here, and I thought that was the case here tonight. At times throughout that game, we played really well," head coach Tony Kemper said of the win. "I thought we did a really good job in the third quarter coming out of halftime, building the lead back. We played tough defense and then finished it off in the fourth."
The teams traded the lead back and forth in the first quarter, with neither side leading by more than one possession through the first five minutes. Then, tied at 8-8, the Sugar Bears rattled off a 9-0 run, capped by back-to-back pick sixes from
Jenna Rose Mafua, to take a three-possession lead and seize momentum. The lead would grow to 11 points with just under 90 seconds in the quarter before the Royals answered with a quick 5-0 run to trim the lead to six, 21-15.
After a three-pointer cut the lead to just three points, Central Arkansas got right back to work, scoring the next six points to retake control. A 10-1 run through the early minutes of the frame boosted the lead to double-figures, as the Sugar Bears dominated both sides of the ball. In particular, the Mafua sisters, Leah and Jenna Rose, were harassing ball handlers all over the court, coming away with multiple steals and fast break opportunities. Additionally, Central Arkansas was aggressive getting to the rim, scoring 20 points in the paint and earning 21 free throws in the first half, knocking down 15 of them. When the dust settled on the first half, which was ended with a buzzer-beating layup from the Royals, the Sugar Bears opened up a nine-point lead headed into the locker room.
The three-pointer started falling in the third quarter: after shooting 1-for-7 in the first half, the Sugar Bears came out and connected on four in just the third quarter. Wright hit a pair as part of her 12-point third frame, finding space all over the court to help Central Arkansas crack a 20-point lead at times during the quarter. The Birmingham native was just two points away from matching the entire Queens roster, who tallied 14 points after halftime. In addition to Wright's scoring, the defense locked in, holding the Royals to just 21 percent shooting. If not for 8-of-11 shooting at the line, the Royals would have fallen behind considerably, but managed to stay within earshot with the freebies.
Bree Stephens and
Kinley Fisher added to the shot-making from deep, each adding a triple in the third.
Despite trailing by 19 after three quarters, Queens wasn't going away quietly.
Leah Mafua scored the opening bucket in the fourth quarter to build the lead to 21, but the Royals would answer with an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 12 points. A three-pointer from
Jade Upshaw stemmed the bleeding, and the defense regained its focus and allowed just three points over the final 6:42, retaking command of the game.
The Royals were limited to just 28 percent shooting in the second half, making just seven of their 25 shots. Even more impressive, for a team that shoots almost 17 three-pointers per game, the Sugar Bear defense completely eliminated the long ball from the Royal equation, allowing the visitors to shoot 1-for-6 for the entire game.
"We've got a good crew in here, we have learned how to win over time. That's still a process we're learning, but we've talked about it since day one: we want to be hard to beat in here," Kemper said of being 7-0 at home. "I think they have done a nice job of adapting to that and making it something that matters to them, not just something that I say."
Central Arkansas heads back out on the road for the next one, taking on Kennesaw State in a battle of top-tier ASUN teams. Tip-off in Kennesaw, Ga., is set for 1 p.m. CT.
