Sugar Bears win, hit another milestone
CONWAY — With each passing week, University of Central Arkansas women’s basketball first-year coach, Tony Kemper, has reached a new milestone.
Against Hendrix College, it was his first win as coach. Against Denver, it was his first road win. Against North Alabama on Jan. 6, it was his first ASUN win.
Thursday night’s 66-61 overtime win over Lipscomb meant adding the latest milestone for Kemper and the Sugar Bears: It brought them to 10 wins, more than either of the previous two UCA teams finished with.
“We want to make big strides and go after anybody that we can,” Kemper said. “I think tonight should be an important lesson in that our ceiling is pretty high. [Lipscomb] will be very difficult to deal with next time we play them. But tonight, figuring out a way to win this early, with this group … they’ve really fermented pretty quickly. That was a good win.”
The win also secured UCA (10-5, 2-0 ASUN) its second conference win — a feat that took the 2022-23 team eight games and nearly three more weeks to accomplish.
After a 7-0 start for UCA on Thursday night, Lipscomb (9-7, 2-1) closed the first quarter on a 13-7 run to trail 14-13.
Midway through the first quarter, UCA’s 6-4 center Cheyenne Banks picked up her second foul and sat the remainder of the first half.
With Banks sidelined, Lipscomb went to 6-2 Aleah Sorrentino often against UCA’s reserves. Sorrentino entered halftime with 11 points and eight rebounds, but UCA extended its lead to 30-28 thanks to its defense, holding Lipscomb to 32.4% shooting from the field.
“I love that,” Banks said of the matchup with Sorrentino. “It pushes me so much more. I’m sure all the posts [would say] it pushes us so much more. I think we all take that as just a huge challenge. Like, ‘OK, she’s coming in, she’s ready to play. Can I match her energy?’ ”
Banks totaled four points and three rebounds in the third quarter as UCA stretched its lead to 42-38.
Until the final two minutes, UCA held Lipscomb to less than 10% shooting from behind the arc, despite 22 attempts.
But in the final 93 seconds, Molly Heard and Blythe Pearson each hit a three-pointer for Lipscomb to tie the score at 54-54. After two misses on UCA’s final possession, the game headed to overtime.
In overtime, it was one of UCA’s three returners from last year’s team, junior guard Randrea Wright, that led the way. She converted back-toback three-point plays to give the Sugar Bears a 62-56 lead.
Wright led UCA with 17 points, followed by Elizabeth Abiara’s 10. Sorrentino led Lipscomb with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
The Sugar Bears stifled any Bisons offense in the final 90 seconds, allowing just one layup, to claim a win over the preseason No. 2 team in the ASUN.
“Lipscomb is really highly thought of, you saw that in the way they performed tonight,” Kemper said. “They’re tough, they have really good length, which caused us some problems throughout the game. They’re highly thought of for a reason, and I do know that our team is growing in their confidence, in their feel about their ability, what they can accomplish. We knew it was an important game.
Kemper has reshaped the look of the Sugar Bears’ program in less than a year since accepting the position. But if you ask him, it’s just getting back to where it was.
“There’s little kind of milestones. Like, you’re in good shape if we can figure out we just did that, we just did this,” Kemper said. “We talked about those briefly, but it’s [about] the body of work.
“This program has competed at really high levels throughout its Division I history, and that’s what we want to do again.”