CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team nearly completed the comeback against Stetson, but couldn't put the finishing touches on late, falling 70-64 Saturday afternoon.
 
The Sugar Bears move to 11-10 overall and 4-5 in ASUN games after the loss to the Hatters. Bree Stephens and Shae Littleford led the way with 15 points apiece, and Cheyanne Kemp added 14. Central Arkansas outscored Stetson by 12 in the second half, but the deficit at the midway point proved to be too much.
 
Central Arkansas opened the scoring with a pair of three-pointers, one from Paris Santacaterina and the other from Kemp, to open up a two-possession lead. But Stetson answered with a 9-0 run to storm back and claim the lead for itself. A split pair at the line and a paint score later, and the score was tied at 9-9, but Stetson added a score right before the buzzer to go back up two at the end of the first. Stetson was able to take advantage of five Central Arkansas turnovers in the frame, turning them into eight of the 11 points.
 
After trading scores early in the second, Central Arkansas got the game tied again at 13-13, but Stetson responded with a 12-2 run to push the lead up to double-figures. The Sugar Bears struggled to answer, and suddenly, the lead was 15, and a three-pointer just before half sent the home team to the locker room down 18. Saturday's halftime score was just the sixth time all season that Central Arkansas has been trailing after 20 minutes of game time.
 
But Central Arkansas was not going to go quietly. With the lead peaking over 20 points, Central Arkansas had to figure out something to change the rhythm of the game. Littleford helped stabilize things with a five-point swing of her own, and Stephens scored 11-straight for the Sugar Bears, hitting paint shots, free throws and a pair of threes, cutting the lead down to 12 to get Central Arkansas back within a reasonable distance. The sides traded scores over the final three minute of the frame, and the Sugar Bears went to the fourth down that same 12 points.
 
Neither side was able to gain any sort of advantage over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, before a couple of big shots got the deficit back to single digits. Julianna Gibson scored on back-to-back possessions with 2:30 to go to cut it to six, and a Kemp fast break layup had the Sugar Bears down four, but back-to-back scores by the Hatters pushed the lead back to eight with under a minute to go.
 
Compared to the first half, Central Arkansas shot 54 percent in the second half, with both quarters at or above the 50-percent mark. Stephens didn't miss a shot over the final 20 minutes, going 4-for-4 from the field with a pair of threes and three at the line.
 
Central Arkansas will be in Charlotte next Wednesday, playing at Queens for the midweek game. Tip-off in Charlotte is set for 6 p.m. CT.