Sugar Bears extend season
CONWAY — The Central Arkansas women’s basketball team kept their season alive Monday by advancing to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Basketball Invitational to close a postseason doubleheader at the Farris Center, while the men’s season and the historic career of season Jordan Howard ended.
A 25-4 first-half run was all Central Arkansas (24-9) needed to put Weber State (21-11) away as the Sugar Bears cruised to an 82-67 win in the tournament quarterfinals. A 51-39 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (17-15) in the opening round on Thursday was the program’s first in Division I.
After going back and forth the first few minutes of the game, the Sugar Bears took the lead for good with 6:36 left in the first quarter and followed by holding the Wildcats scoreless for more than seven minutes as they built a lead as large as 25 before the break, and would never allow the Wildcats to get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Five Sugar Bears scored in double figures in the victory, led by Kamry Orr’s 25 on 8 of 10 shooting from the field and 7 of 10 at the free throw line. Kierra Jordan added 16 points and six rebounds, while Taylor Baudoin had 14 points and Antonija Bozic 11. Taylor Sells came close to a triple double, scoring 10 points with career highs of eight rebounds and eight assists.
“(Taylor Sells) is so quick and plays so hard,” said UCA head coach Sandra Rushing. “And I thought Kamry Orr came off the bench and really sparked us. K.J. hit some good shots. And I go back, Maddie Goodner is not scoring a lot for us, but she’s doing what she needs to do defensively for us. Antonija hit some big shots and gave us some momentum. I’m just really proud for this team and happy for the seniors. Hey, we’re going to a Final Four.”
It is the third straight game in double figures for Sells, who has averaged 13 points over that stretch after averaging just 2.9 per game in Southland Conference play.
After winning with defense on Thursday, the offense carried the Sugar Bears on Monday as the
82 points was their highest of the season against a Division I opponent and second-highest overall behind a 106-point effort against Crowley’s Ridge College on Nov. 28.
“This is the points I want to put up,” Rushing said. “I’ve said all along this year this team is capable of scoring these points. There are still some things we’ve got to fix before Saturday, but I’m so excited that we’re playing here again on Saturday.”
The win pits the Sugar Bears against Nevada (1916) in the WBI semifinals on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the Farris Center. With the victory, the Sugar Bears improve to 40-5, a winning percentage of 88.9 percent, at home over the last three seasons, and move to 7-3 in postseason games during that same span.
“To hear the fans cheering, yelling ‘U-C-A’ at the end, means a lot to me and the players,” Rushing said. “It was an exciting atmosphere and I just want to thank everybody who was here, and has supported us.”
Men
The men’s team closed out a record-setting season with an 80-59 loss to Jacksonville State (2312) in the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational.
The loss closed the careers of seniors Jordan Howard, Mathieu Kamba and Ethan Lee, who won an NCAA Division I program record 18 games in their fourth season of a major program overhaul. Howard, the leading scorer in the nation this season and the career scoring leader and 3-point leader in UCA and Arkansas history, ended with a 15-point effort. The Southland Conference Player of the Year added two more 3-pointers to his career total, giving him 386, breaking the UCA record by a whopping 180 threes.
The Bears (18-17), who were coming off a 92-90 first-round CBI victory over Seattle (20-14) Wednesday on the road, started flat and dug themselves a deep early hole. Central Arkansas started 1-for-10 from the field and trailed by as much as 14 points in the opening half. They fought back and cut the deficit to just seven points with 2:55 left in the half but never got closer.
“I was listening to some of the coaches in the NCAA Tournament last night, and almost every one of them said the same thing I’m going to say,” said UCA’s fourth-year head coach Russ Pennell. “It’s not even about losing the game, it’s the fact that you’ll never coach this team again. And I think that’s the thing that people don’t really see, to invest in two years of recruiting, and four years of coaching them.
“Some of these kids we met when they were 15-16 years old and now they’re 21-22 year old men. They are a part of your life and now they’ll be gone. Never forgotten, because obviously we’ll be in contact with them. But I think that’s the biggest thing that makes this bittersweet.”
The Bears won their first two postseason games in the Division I era that began in 2006-07, beating Lamar (19-14) in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament before knocking off Seattle last week in their fourth trip to the west coast this season.