CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team put up a record-setting night against the Bellarmine Knights on Saturday, making an emphatic return to the Farris Center with an 85-29 win.
The win improved the Sugar Bears to 9-6 overall and 2-1 in ASUN games. It was also the largest margin of victory against a Division I opponent, largest win over a conference opponent, and the most three-pointers hit against a Division I opponent in program history, with 17 three-point shots.
With Bellarmine very shorthanded, the Sugar Bears jumped out early on the Knights.
Cheyanne Kemp and
Shae Littleford combined for back-to-back threes to get the home team on the board, and the lead only grew from there on. The threes were dropping like hotcakes in the first, and Central Arkansas used five triples to build a 20-7 lead after one. The Bellarmine had nine turnovers, more miscues than points in the opening ten minutes.
Central Arkansas ramped up an already active defensive effort in the second, getting after ball handlers and forcing eight more turnovers in the second quarter. The eight, of which seven were live-ball turnovers, resulted in 11 fast break points for Central Arkansas. And while the three-pointers weren't falling quite as easily in the stanza, paint touches were, and the Sugar Bears added ten points in the paint. Defensively, when Bellarmine was able to get shots off, they were all contested, resulting in a 1-for-11 showing in the quarter. The four Knight points were the fewest allowed in a quarter against a Division I program this season, and Bellarmine had just 11 points at halftime. Littleford, who hit three threes and three free throws, had 12 points at the break.
Three-pointers continued to rain down in the third quarter, with the Sugar Bears knocking down three-straight to open the second half, building the lead to 39 points with a 9-2 run.
Paris Santacaterina hit a pair of free throws, and the offense continued to knock down the long ball, adding two more to push the lead past 40. Central Arkansas started the third quarter 5-for-5 from distance, and would hit one more before the third quarter ended to give the home team 14 triples with ten minutes to go. Bellarmine, meanwhile, cut down massively on the turnovers, which allowed the Knights to execute some offensive plays, and the Knights scored ten points in the third, nearly doubling their score from halftime.
The starters played about half of the fourth quarter, inching the lead up over 50 before exiting the game. And though the bench mob came in for cleanup, they didn't let up off the gas on the defensive side of the ball, and Bellarmine scored just eight points on 27 percent shooting in the final quarter. During the fourth,
Laylah Reese hit her fourth three-pointer of the game, which pushed the Sugar Bears to 17 total three-pointers, one make past last season's record of 16 against a Division I opponent. Late in the period, Conway native
Alivia Cox got great post position, caught the ball inside, and flipped it up for her first basket in Purple and Gray, icing the final margin of 56 points.
Central Arkansas remains undefeated at home this season, and improves to 32-3 at home under head coach
Tony Kemper. The Sugar Bears will look to continue the momentum of the Farris Center on Saturday, as EKU comes to town for an ASUN matchup at 1 p.m.
