The University of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears won their ninth game in a row, taking down the University of New Orleans 67- 55 on Feb. 6 in the Farris Center.
Central Arkansas women’s basketball is off its best season for head coach Sandra Rushing after she surpassed her previous season best of 18 wins.
The University of Central Arkansas (19-2, 9-1 SLC) was going into the second of their three game home stand against a struggling New Orleans team who now sits at 3-8 in conference after the defeat this past weekend. The Bears would gain the lead early and that would carry on throughout the rest of the game.
The Bears got ahead by a 16 point margin to end the first half where they shot an efficient 52.2 percent from the field on 12-23 shots. The Bears shot 57.1 percent from deep all of which coming from junior guard Maggie Proffitt in that first half.
Foul line shots were a big difference in the first half as UCA made eight more shots on nine more attempts than the Privateers.
The second half was much different than the first with UCA having been outscored 34-30 but still told much of the same story, as the Privateers couldn’t manage to close the gap. The Bears continue to lead the league in scoring defense are only behind Abilene Christian in scoring margin averaging 63.8 points per game.
The Bears were able to dominate the Privateers in the turnover battle as well as assists. UCA only shot a 34.8 field goal percentage but made up for it with their shots from deep.
The night was lead in scoring once again by Proffitt who hit 4-8 three pointers on the night, sophomore forward Taylor Baudin who put up 14 points, junior guard Brianna Mullins had 13 points with five rebounds and a season-high eight assists and senior forward Kendara Watts who added 11 points and six rebounds.
The Bears seem to be clicking completing their third straight double-digit victory.
University of Central Arkansas is now tied with Abilene Christian in loses this season only having one and are number two in the Southland Conference.
The Bears will return to the court on Feb. 10 at home when they are to host Northwestern State to finish out their three games at home. They will be looking to cap their tenth victory in a row.
The game is scheduled 7 p.m. in the Farris Center. between the two that started in doubles.
Originally published in the Feb. 10, 2016 print edition of The Echo.
image courtesy of Lauren Swaim
