Win three games this weekend and the Central Arkansas women’s basketball team will have no trouble forgetting about a late-season collapse that dropped it from first to third in the Southland Conference standings.
Three victories is what it would take for UCA to win the Southland Conference Tournament title and the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament that goes with it.
Earning the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament would mark quite a turnaround. UCA led the Southland Conference with three games left in the regular season, but it lost at home to Lamar (56-53) and on the road at Northwestern (La.) State (77-45) and Stephen F. Austin (61-41) to fall from first to third in the conference standings.
Instead of earning a double bye in the Southland Tournament, the Sugar Bears (18-11)received one bye and will play McNeese State at 1:30 p.m. today in a quarterfinal game at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas, with the winner facing second-seeded Stephen F. Austin on Saturday. McNeese State (18-11) beat sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi78-73 on Thursday.
Senior center Courtney Duever said she understands the situation for UCA going into today’s game.
“If the team that’s shown up for the past couple of games shows up for UCA, then we’re not going to win,”Duever said. “It’s as simple as that. But if we show up with a team that has the freshman of the year and the player of the year, we should be fine.”
Duever, the Southland player of the year, was referring specifically to herself and top freshman Brianna Mullins.
Coach Sandra Rushing said expectations are still high for UCA, but a three-game losing streak is still unnerving.
“If it would have happened in January, it wouldn’t look as bad,” Rushing said. “People don’t remember how you startoff. They remember how you finish. Our plan going into this tournament is to compete and give it our best shot.”
The Sugar Bears are looking for their first victory in a tournament game since 2011, when they advanced to the Southland championship game, losing to McNeese State. UCA has lost in the first round two consecutive seasons, to Nicholls State as a No. 1 seed in 2012 and to Stephen F. Austin as a No. 6 seed last year.
UCA lost four in a row earlier this season to Austin Peay, Southern Illinois, Southern Miss and Arkansas State. A loss today would give the Sugar Bears their second four-game losing streak but, more important, end their season despite starting 12-3 in conference play.
“When it’s in front of you, you have to take advantage of the opportunity,” Rushing said. “You can’t sit back and expect somebody else to let you have it.”Southland Tournament Merrell Center, Katy, Texas THURSDAY’S FIRST-ROUND GAMES Nicholls State 77, Oral Roberts 66 McNeese St. 78, TAMU-Corpus Christi 73 TODAY’S QUARTERFINAL GAMES Nicholls St. vs. NW (La.) State, 11 a.m.
Cent. Ark. vs. McNeese St., 1:30 p.m. SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS Lamar vs. Nicholls/NSU, noon S.F. Austin vs. UCA/McNeese St., 2:30 p.m. SUNDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP TBD, noon (CBS Sports Network)
Sports, Pages 27 on 03/14/2014