ATLANTA, Ga. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team made it a winning streak Tuesday afternoon, winning its third-straight game by defeating Stony Brook 70-42. Like Monday's game, it was a balanced effort, as nine Sugar Bears scored, with eight logging at least six points.
The Sugar Bears (4-2) had another stifling defensive output, holding a second-straight opponent under 45 points, and the 42 allowed today are the fewest the Sugar Bears have let up this year.
Shae Littleford and
Bree Stephens both had 11 points to lead the team,
Cheyanne Kemp,
Linda Amaning and
Kamryn Griffin each had eight.
Stony Brook saw a few shots fall early, building a 10-5 lead though the middle of the first quarter. But after the media timeout, back-to-back scores by
Julianna Gibson and
Jenna Cook leveled the score at 10-10, and three-straight additional scores by Central Arkansas turned a five-point deficit into a seven-point lead by the end of the first quarter.
The Seawolves trimmed the lead down to three with a small burst to start the second, and made it a one-possession game in 90 seconds. But Central Arkansas hit the brakes on that run, responding with a 9-0 answer over the next few minutes to reclaim a 12-point lead. The defensive vicegrip started to close on the Seawolves at this point, and the Sugar Bears closed the second quarter on an 18-4 run that built a 17-point lead at the break. Stony Brook scored just twice over the final five minutes of the frame.
Central Arkansas continued to score efficiently in the third quarter, but allowed Stony Brook to hang around with free throws. While the Sugar Bears shot 47 percent on 15 field goal attempts, the Seawolves shot 30 percent on ten attempts, but 6-of-8 from the charity stripe prevented the game from falling completely out of reach.
All 14 Sugar Bears saw minutes in the fourth quarter, as the starters pushed the game out of reach and the bench filled in and held things down to the finish. The Sugar Bears hit four three-pointers in the final stanza, all off the bench, and two from Griffin, and the Seawolves were held to 18 percent shooting, just getting suffocated by the Sugar Bear defense.
The Sugar Bears close out the Georgia State Thanksgiving Tournament on Wednesday, facing the host Panthers at 11 a.m. CT.
