GRAMBLING, La. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team gutted out an 82-75 win over Grambling State Saturday afternoon. Despite another game where the Sugar Bears went through some scoring droughts, the team toughened up in the second half defensively to hang on for the win.
The win improved the Sugar Bears to 7-3 on the year, and marks six wins in seven games for Central Arkansas. Four players logged double-digit points, led by
Jenna Cook's 16 points in her first career start.
Cheyanne Kemp added 15 points, and
Bree Stephens and
Shae Littleford each had 13. Stephens also had two blocks in the game, tying her for second-most in program history with 142 career blocks. She had one block in each of the first two quarters, and Stephens now stands a block away from claiming the number two spot in program history.
It took a couple of minutes for either team to score, with turnovers abound over the opening minutes of the game. After the first shot fell, the teams traded buckets back and forth. Stephens hit a three-pointer to make it a four-point lead, and
Paris Santacaterina added a fast-break bucket to make it a seven-point lead with three minutes left in the frame. Both defenses locked in from there, and zero points were scored over the final few minutes of the frame, landing the Sugar Bears with a 17-10 advantage after one.
Grambling scored seven of the first nine points of the second quarter to make the lead disappear, and the home team would match the next three scores to keep the game tied. And despite having a tough time keeping the lead, the Sugar Bears did just enough to hold onto it through the rest of the second quarter, hitting free throws and paint touches to find just enough to hold the home team at bay. But up five after a
Julianna Gibson layup with 18 seconds left on the clock, Grambling worked a last possession three-pointer, sinking a shot with seven seconds left to keep the game within a possession at the break.
The Tigers opened the third quarter with a three-pointer, taking their first lead of the night and putting the Sugar Bears in a little bit of a tough position, made only tougher by the three-pointer on the next possession that made it a two-possession deficit. But the returners, Stephens and Cook, found a quick answer to retie the game, scoring on a second chance opportunity and a pair at the line, respectively. Stephens and Cook scored the first nine points of the second half for the Sugar Bears, buoying a group that looked uncomfortable at times. The lead bounced back and forth as the third continued, and finally, a Kemp three-ball with 45 seconds left gave Central Arkansas a four-point edge going into the fourth quarter.
Galvanized by the response to losing the lead early in the third quarter, the energy from Central Arkansas ramped up in the fourth. Stephens opened the quarter with a layup, and Kemp added three scores in three minutes, including a three-pointer, that helped build the lead to nine points midway through the fourth. From there, despite turnovers giving Grambling opportunities to climb back into the game, the defense held solid, and on the other side, the Central Arkansas seniors took control. Stephens and Littleford made six of seven free throws down the stretch to keep the lead at multiple possessions, and the Sugar Bears left Grambling with a win.
The Sugar Bears will be 13 miles east of Grambling next week, playing at Louisiana Tech on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
