CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team earned its sixth-straight win Wednesday night, gutting out a 67-63 win over Austin Peay in the Farris Center.
The win improves Central Arkansas to 17-10 overall and 10-5 in ASUN games, keeping the Sugra Bears right in the mix for a top-four seed in the ASUN Championship.
Jenna Cook and
Cheyanne Kemp led the team with 14 points apiece,
Shae Littleford had 12, and
Bree Stephens added 11. Playing one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the ASUN, Central Arkansas limited the Govs to just nine extra possessions, giving up just three second chance points. On the other side, Central Arkansas had 17 offensive rebounds, contributing to nine second chance points.
As has been the case in some of these ASUN games, neither offense got out of the gates quickly in the first quarter. The teams were stuck at 2-2 until under the seven-minute mark, and the teams stayed even to 7-7 with 5:25 left in the opening frame. After Austin Peay split a pair at the line, Central Arkansas responded with a 5-0 burst, taking a four-point lead. The Govs hit a three to keep it close, but the Sugar Bears responded with back-to-back scores by Cook, and a
Paris Santacaterina three before the end of the quarter gave the home team an eight-point lead after ten minutes of play.
But the lead, for a time, would be short-lived. Austin Peay cut it to three in under two minutes getting the score to 21-18. The Sugar Bears held off the Govs, getting trips to the line to push the advantage back to five, and then up to seven, and a Cook layup made it a nine-point lead with just over three minutes left in the half. Austin Peay scored with two minutes left in the half, but Stephens responded with a three-pointer near the end of the half to push the margin to 10 at the midway point.
Stephens was the high-scorer at the half, with nine points, three assists and a pair of blocks.
Julianna Gibson had four offensive rebounds in the first half, helping Central Arkansas keep possessions for itself while limiting transition opportunities from the Governors.
Kemp opened the second half with a paint score, building the lead to a then-best 12 points. But Austin Peay was determined to not let the game get out of hand, keeping the margin right around ten points for most of the third. The third quarter was a series of mini runs by both teams: the lead would get cut to eight, Central Arkansas would respond and push it back to 12 or 13. Austin Peay would eventually get the lead down to six with two minutes left in the third, but a bucket inside by
Linda Amaning and traded free throws kept the lead at eight with ten minutes left to play.
After three quarters of neither team scoring 20 points in a quarter, both Central Arkansas and Austin Peay decided that points could actually flow freely in the fourth. Austin Peay got the lead down to four over the first few minutes of the frame, hitting a three-pointer to make it 50-46 with 6:12 to go. Littleford matched it with an old-fashioned three-point play, but the lead hung around that five-to-eight point range for basically the entire quarter. As time wound down, the Austin Peay defense had to get a little more aggressive, which naturally led to more fouls. In the bonus, Central Arkansas shot 9-of-13 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to keep the Govs at bay, using the high-percentage shots to keep Austin Peay at arm's length as the clock continued to waste away. Cook, Kemp and Littleford each scored seven in the final quarter, all three going to the line on multiple occasions to put the game on ice.
The Sugar Bears have three games left in the regular season, with the next one at West Georgia on Saturday. Tip-off in Carrollton is set for 1 p.m. CT.
