CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team extended its winning streak to nine games in a row and reached 20 wins on the season Friday night, controlling Queens from start to finish to send its seniors off with yet another home win.
The 65-47 win improved Central Arkansas to 20-10 on the year and 13-5 in ASUN games, locking up the No. 3 seed in next week's ASUN Championship.
Shae Littleford and
Cheyanne Kemp each had 19 points, and
Jenna Cook added 11 off the bench. The three seniors that saw minutes, Littleford,
Bree Stephens and
Julianna Gibson, combined for 29 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the win.
After celebrating the accomplishments of the senior class, which also included student manager Zoe Hubbs and early graduate
Kaidyn Beckwith, the first quarter was a ten minute stretch of runs. Queens opened with a 5-0 start, burying its first two shots to take a small lead. But the Sugar Bears answered with a 10-0 sprint to reclaim the lead, as Kemp and Littleford traded possessions and baskets to get Central Arkansas on top. Queens leveled off with a 4-0 counter, and traded buckets at the end of the quarter saw the scores separated by just one point in favor of the home team.
Paris Santacaterina started the second with a paint score, and that's when the Sugar Bear defense found the same intensity as the last time these two teams faced off in Charlotte. While Central Arkansas didn't force as many turnovers as the meeting in Charlotte, the shot defending was at an all-time high, and Queens was forced into tough shot after tough shot throughout the second quarter. The Royals hit just two field goals before halftime, shooting 2-for-16 in the second quarter as Central Arkansas built the lead. It took three minutes of game time before the visitors hit their first shot of the frame, then after the second shot fell with over four minutes to go, Queens didn't score for the rest of the first half. On the other side, Central Arkansas took the lead from one to five by the media timeout, then continued scoring until a Stephens layup with three seconds left sent the teams to the locker room separated by 13 points.
Six Sugar Bears scored in the second quarter, and the quarter marked the 20
th time this season that Central Arkansas has held an opponent to fewer than ten points in a quarter. At the break, Kemp and Littleford had combined for 17 points, matching Queens entirely.
Shots started falling for Queens as the second half started, but it wasn't like the visitors could keep Central Arkansas from scoring. The third quarter was largely a back-and-forth affair, with each score getting matched by the other side. The Sugar Bears pushed the advantage to 17, then saw it whittled back down to 14. A 9-0 run increased it to 23 points, but the Royals got it back down to 18 just a couple of minutes later. By the end of the third, Central Arkansas led by 21 points, but the defense held Queens to just 31 through three quarters. Littleford was a key offensive catalyst in the frame, scoring 11 points in the quarter.
Central Arkansas continued to press the advantage higher as the fourth quarter rolled around, keeping the lead at or above 20 points for much of the quarter. A Cook three-pointer with just over four minutes on the clock increased the lead to a high-point of 27 points, and a Stephens score in the paint made it 29 points. At that point, the Sugar Bears pulled their seniors, and the Farris Center crowd gave them one more standing ovation as the class exited their final home regular season game.
Up next for Central Arkansas is the ASUN Championship. With a top-four seed locked up, the Sugar Bears hold a first round bye, and will play on Thursday, March 5
th at 6:30 p.m. CT. The Sugar Bears will await the winner of North Alabama and Queens, a pair of teams that Central Arkansas swept during the regular season.
