UCA hanging on

For three quarters Monday, the University of Central Arkansas women’s basketball team hung with Southland-leading Stephen F. Austin before the Ladyjacks turned a 49-49 game into an 82-59 victory, outscoring the Sugar Bears 33-10 in the final period.

“We played three solid quarters and ran out of gas in the fourth,” coach Sandra Rushing said. “The game was a lot closer than what the score indicated.”

In the losing effort came another strong performance for a UCA team (8-12, 6-6 Southland Conference) that has won five of its last seven games following a 1-4 start to conference play. The Sugar Bears will conclude the regular season with four games in eight days Feb. 27 through March 6, beginning Saturday in Conway with a visit from Abilene Christian, and enter the quick run of games with their hopes of reaching the Southland Conference Tournament still hanging in the balance.

With Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi unable to complete their 2020-21 conference schedules, the Southland has opted to use a points system to determine final regular-season standings and tournament seeding, assigning three points to each win within the conference, and one point for each canceled game.

UCA’s enters the weekend slate with 18 points on six Southland victories, placing the Sugar Bears as the No. 7 seed in the eightteam conference tournament bracket as results stand. UCA trails closely behind fourth-place Nicholls State with 21 points, as well as McNeese State in fifth place with 20 points and Lamar in sixth with 19. Chasing the Sugar Bears are Abilene Christian, who are level on points with UCA ahead of this weekend’s meeting, and Houston Baptist on the outside looking in with 12 points.

After Saturday’s contest with the Wildcats, the Sugar Bears are set to host McNeese State and third-place Southeastern Louisiana before closing the regular season on the road at Northwestern (La.) State, which is winless in the Southland this season.

“We’ve got a tough challenge coming up,” Rushing said. “We’re trying to make the conference tournament. And we’re not in yet. We’ve got three out of the last four at home. That is really positive. If we could finish strong and get to the tournament, that’s a major accomplishment.”