CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas women's basketball team put together one of the best defensive efforts of the season against Lipscomb, forcing 35 turnovers and swiping 24 steals to come away with a 60-47 win Saturday afternoon.
The win improves the Sugar Bears to 13-10 overall and 6-5 in ASUN games.
Cheyanne Kemp led the home team with 17 points, adding six steals, one of six Sugar Bears with multiple steals and one of three Sugar Bears with five or more steals.
Shae Littleford added 14 points and seven steals, and
Bree Stephens had 14 points of her own.
Laylah Reese was the third Sugar Bear with at least five steals, collecting five swipes of her own. The 24 steals against the Bisons were the most by a Sugar Bear team against a Division I opponent, and the third time this season Central Arkansas has recorded 20-plus steals.
Lipscomb came out guns blazing in the first quarter, hitting four three-pointers to jump out by eight, building a 16-8 lead. Central Arkansas, meanwhile, struggled to shoot the ball, and needed a bucket in the final minute of the quarter to reach double-digit points. Four Sugar Bears scored in the quarter, but as a team, shot just 33 percent from the field, trailing by six after the opening quarter.
Central Arkansas decided that Lipscomb would be vulnerable to a full-court press in the second quarter, on account of Lipscomb being limited to seven players, and most of them bigs and wings. So the Sugar Bears started trapping in the second quarter, and it became one of the most lopsided quarters of the season. Over the first seven minutes and change of the second quarter, the Bisons were forced into 12 turnovers, allowing Central Arkansas to turn a six-point deficit to a ten-point lead. Lipscomb attempted four shots and two free throws during the stretch, all misses, as the Central Arkansas defense suffocated the Bisons. Lipscomb finally scored with just over two minutes left in the quarter to avoid being held scoreless, but the one good jumper was all Lipscomb got. Meanwhile, Central Arkansas turned the 15 total turnovers in the second quarter to 15 points, including nine from Stephens.
The Sugar Bears' 18-point advantage in the second quarter built the lead to 12 by halftime. Lipscomb, meanwhile, had 18 points and 20 turnovers at the break, and only two players had scored. Central Arkansas, while not shooting the ball particularly well, had forced enough turnovers to build a lead, and the Sugar Bears had 14 steals by halftime.
Lipscomb was able to handle the press much better in the third quarter, committing just six turnovers after halftime. And while Central Arkansas kept the energy up and turned the focus to offensive rebounding, the Sugar Bears just could not pull away. Central Arkansas shot just 17 percent in the third quarter, but had nine offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive and keep Lipscomb from getting looks on the other end. But as the teams went to the fourth, both sides had scored only ten points in the third quarter.
Thankfully, the shots started falling in the fourth quarter, and a three-minute sprint from Central Arkansas pushed the lead from 12 to 23 in the first three minutes. The Sugar Bears scored on six of their first seven possessions of the final stanza, which included three-straight turnovers from Lipscomb, pushing the lead beyond a possible comeback by the Bisons. The lead peaked at 25 midway through the fourth, but Lipscomb found a little life late in the game, getting the lead down to 20 by the four-minute mark, then back down to 13 by the end of the game, still one point higher than the start of the fourth.
Central Arkansas has a makeup game on Monday, hosting North Alabama in a game that was rescheduled due to winter weather a couple of weeks ago. Tip-off against the Lions is set for 6:30 p.m. in the Farris Center.
