by Kai Caddy
In yet another close Gulf South Conference battle the UCA Bears came up just shy of pulling out a win against Christian Brothers.
The Bucs (11-8, 5-4) slid past the Bears (12-7, 5-4) thanks to a few mistakes down the stretch, 82-79.
The Bears trailed 80-76 after CBU’s Kevin Weybright hit 1-of-2 technical free throws with 10 seconds left after Darryl Jones called a timeout the Bears didn’t have. UCA pushed it up the floor and LeMar Phillips hit a 3 with 5.4 seconds to go to cut it to 80-79.
UCA sent Weybright back to the line and he hit two free throws to make it 82-79 with four seconds to go. The Bears took off down the floor and Aubrey Bruner took an off-balanced shot with :02 to go, it rimmed out and the Bears were sent back to the locker room with their second straight loss.
“We just couldn’t stop [CBU],” coach Rand Chappell said. “Sure, we had a better offensive output than we’ve had in a while, but in the end we see that the game’s not really about offense.”
Weybright had 34 points in the game. The Bears could not find an answer for him.
“It seems to me Kevin Weybright put on a show,” Chappell said. “He showed why he is one of the better players in the league.”
Phillips, who led the Bears with 30 points, agreed with Chappell.
“He was on that second half,” he said. “He did what he’s supposed to do and stepped up for his team. He’s a leader and he showed it.”
Weybright turned the ball over with 1:08 left and missed two big free throws, but it wasn’t enough for the Bears.
“He gave us a chance at the end,” Phillips said. “We were trying, but some things happen during the games and we always find ourselves clawing back in.”
Joey Cortez, who had 7 assists and shot 4-of-9 for 9 points couldn’t figure out why Weybright went off after just 7 points in the first half.
“I don’t know what it was,” Cortez said. “We had him scouted pretty well. But you look at him and you really don’t think he’s that athletic and then he’s beating you to the hole and gets a layup. Every time they needed a play he was making one.”
Even with the loss the Bears are still in the mix for a high seed in the GSC tournament. After Monday’s action the Bears are in a three-way tie for third at 5-4 with Henderson State and Christian Brothers.
“We’re still right in the mix,” Cortez said. “First place is probably out of reach now, but second place is still right there. It’s going to be really tough, but we really need to get a bye in that first round.”
The top three teams in each GSC division receive a bye in the first round of the tournament.
UCA shot 54.8 percent in the second half and finished the game shooting 50.8 percent. They were 10-of-15 from deep, for 66.7 percent.
Jones pitched in 12 points and Bruner added 11 for the Bears. Fred Campbell had 9 and Stephin Booth had 8.
Southern Arkansas 63, UCA 60
MAGNOLIA — UCA turned what looked like one of the lowest scoring games in school history into a classic, but came up short, 63-60 at Southern Arkansas on Thursday.
After sending Cory Green to the free-throw line four straight times the Bears went on a 6-0 run to cut the SAU lead to 48-36. Green went back to the line on SAU’s next possession to push the lead back to 14.
The Bears started to press and cut the lead to 53-47 with 2:10 left.Cortez converted a three-point play with 1:27 left to cut the lead to 54-50.
SAU went down and scored once more, then Cortez came back with his own bucket, making it 56-52. After two missed SAU free throws, Phillips was fouled and went one-for-two to cut the lead to 56-53 with 34.7 seconds left.
Two more SAU free throws from Brandon Bealer made it 60-53 with 22.2 ticks left.
But the Bears weren’t done. LeMar Phillips powered one in to make it 60-55. A Mulerider turnover led to a Cortez bucket with 4.6 left to make it 60-57.
UCA forced one more turnover with just .4 of a second left. The inbounds play didn’t give UCA the shot it wanted and Wise had to fling one up from deep beyond the arc.
Cortez finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds, after being held to only 2 rebounds and no points in the first. Phillips led the Bears with 19 points and was the only Bear contributing on the scoreboard in the first half. Green led SAU with 25 points, 17 from the free-throw line.
Sugar Bears rolling as round two of GSC play begins
by Josh Goff
It’s beginning to look a little familiar for the Sugar Bears.
Last year, en route to 15 conference wins, UCA consistently dominated the competition, ringing up nine double-digit victories. After as shaky a 6-2 start to the conference season can be, the Sugar Bears are making their move.
Monday night, they disposed of Christian Brothers 83-69 for their third consecutive double-digit victory. Coming into Monday’s game they had defeated UAM by 19 and SAU by 20.
“It feels good to win any game no matter how much it’s by – it’s always a win,” said Renita Dobbins, who scored 17 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out six assists in Monday’s victory. “As time goes on we play better and better each game.”
Lauren Williams, who averaged 16 points per game in the CBU and SAU wins, has noticed a marked improvement in play for herself and the team.
“I feel like I’m playing better,” she said. “I’m trying to keep it more consistent. We’ve got some people not able to play, so I had to step it up a little bit. We’re all playing a lot better together. We’re trying to play more up-tempo and that’s helping us out a lot. Everybody’s stepping up. We plan on going 8-0 this second round. That’s our goal and we think we can reach that.”
For that to happen, Williams – who scored only three points in the first meeting with CBU – needs to keep scoring, according to coach Checola Seals.
“I asked Lauren how many she scored last time we played Christian Brothers and she said ‘none’, and I told her ‘No, you actually shot the ball’,” Seals said. “So I said ‘Okay the last time I told you to shoot you scored for us, now what do I got to do (to keep that happening)? She said to keep telling her every ballgame. So that’s what I’ve got to do. Each game I’ve got to tell her to score and she’s going to score for us.”
If Williams does or not, the Sugar Bears may have found another threat in Victoria Richards, who has put up 14 and 13 points in consecutive games. Monday she recorded a double-double, adding 11 rebounds.
“We were a little concerned about the rebounding,” Seals said. “We knew we had to get off to a good start there, and Victoria was huge.”
Richards assumed some senior responsibility in stepping up for her short-handed team (missing Mariesha Piggee due to concussion and Allyson Sample, out with a stress fracture in her right foot).
“I needed to step up for my team because CBU had a very good post player ” she said. “I knew I had to step up my role. If I can’t score, I’ll rebound. If the rebounds are coming, the scoring will come. I noticed I was getting the rebounds, but the points I didn’t think about. I was just thinking ‘follow shots and get in there’.”
The Sugar Bears trailed 46-44 with 16:07, but were able to pull away and maintain a double-digit lead for most of the game’s final 10 minutes.
A big run in the SAU game put that one away, as UCA turned it on after Piggee was cold-cocked with 10:44 left – quickly extending a nine-point lead to 17 over the next couple minutes. SAU managed only two field goals in the game’s final seven minutes while the Sugar Bears continued to pour it on – scoring more in the final 30 seconds (five) than the SAU did in the last 3:00 (four).
“We were able to come together and get our kids refocused,” Seals said. “It’s not about getting even – but beating them on the scoreboard.”
Delta State eeks past Sugar Bears
January 22, 2006
by Josh Goff
Just before the final buzzer sounded, UCA’s Lauren Williams flung a shot from about halfcourt that bounced off the backboard and right into the net. The crowd cheered and celebrated.
But it was too little, too late.
The Sugar Bears (12-5, 4-2 GSC) lost a four-point lead late and slipped down five in the final seconds before Williams’ heave made the final score 52-50, losing the game due to a number of backbreaking turnovers in the last minute.
“When you need to take care of the basketball and you don’t take care of it at a crucial point in time, the only thing that can happen is bad things,” coach Checola Seals said. “We thought this was a good game for us to win. We knew we were going to take care of the basketball and we knew we were going to do what we had to do at home – and it didn’t happen.”
The Sugar Bears went up four with 2:38 when Renita Dobbins followed her own errant baseline jumper by grabbing the rebound and going in for a layup. That would be it for UCA until Williams’ last-second desperation shot, and the Sugar Bears’ only two field goals of the final 8:40.
The Lady Statesmen (15-1, 4-1) got a jumper from Wyconda Thomas with 2:05 remaining, and that would be their last field goal. However, they went on a tear at the free throw line, hitting six in the game’s final 30 seconds to put the game away after a series of UCA turnovers.
“We talked about how we did a good job not sending them to the line in the first half,” Seals said. “In the second half we reversed that mess.”
In the first half the Lady Statesmen didn’t get a single free throw attempt, but converted 12-of-17 in the second half.
DSU continued to pile up the free throw attempts in the waning moments as the Sugar Bears kept turning the ball over and putting themselves in a position where they had to foul.
“We had two unforced errors down there where we just panicked and tossed it away,” Seals said. “We just didn’t take care of the basketball.”
The Sugar Bears got 17 points from Caronica Randle, who was 3-of-8 from the field and 11-of-13 from the free throw line.
No other Sugar Bear finished in double digits, the closest being freshmen Mariesha Piggee and Brittany Greer with eight apiece. Greer scored all eight of her points in the middle of the second half where she accounted for all but two of UCA’s 10 points over a six-minute span.
“We were glad she stepped up in the second half,” Seals said. “We needed to get some production out of the post and she was able to do some wheeling and dealing in there and make some things happen. We just came up a little short.”
The Sugar Bears lost the game but added another weapon to their arsenal with the unexpected return of Micaela Thomas, who was a key part to last year’s run to the national semifinals Thomas graduated in May and had another year of eligibility remaining, but had seemingly decided to forego this season until a change of heart after the Henderson State game.
Thomas, who said she hasn’t touched a basketball since March, was worked slowly back into things, getting only 11 minutes and scoring four points.
“She’s still getting a feel for the game,” Seals said. She came in and gave us a lift when we needed it. We’re just trying to get her back where she can be back in the flow of the game. Just her presence has already made a difference on our squad.”
The Sugar Bears are at home again Monday when they take on the University of Arkansas-Monticello Cotton Blosssoms.
“We’ve got to regroup and get ready for Monticello on Monday,” Seals said. “There’s nothing you can do at this point. Just look at where you made your mistakes and make your adjustments.”
Statesmen go on 20-2 run in final seven minutes to knock off Bears
January 20, 2006
by Kai Caddy
The UCA Bears held a 10-point lead over No. 14 Delta State after 32 minutes, 51 seconds Thursday. Unfortunately for the Bears the game was 40 minutes long.
Over the next 7:09 the Bears (11-5, 4-2) scored just two more points, while Delta State (14-1, 5-0) went on a 20-2 run to win the game 64-58 in front of 1,577 fans at the Farris Center.
“I’m proud of the way our guys played,” coach Rand Chappell said. “It was a shame to let it slip away. We had a golden opportunity to get a big win tonight, but we just let it slip through our fingers.”
Delta State stars Jeremy Richardson and Jasper Johnson were not shut down by the Bears, but they were forced to work for what they got and UCA didn’t let too many other players hurt them until late. Richardson finished with 19 points, Johnson had 16.
“I think to win tonight we needed to play an A-game,” Chappell said. “But we probably played about a B-game. We outplayed them a pretty good margin, but we couldn’t hold them down the stretch.”
Johnson, who stands 6-foot-7 and weighs in at just over 250 pounds can bang in the post but also come out and shoot the 3. He was 2-for-5 from behind the arc.
“We wanted to try to make [Johnson] work hard for everything,” Chappell said. “Overall I think we did a pretty decent job on him.”
The Bears took a 32-29 lead into the locker room at halftime and shot 52 percent for the half. But the Statesmen opened up the half on an 8-0 run to take a 36-32 lead before the Bears took over the half.
Trailing by five with 16:26 to go the Bears opened up a 19-4 run to take a 54-44 lead with 8:10 remaining.
The Statesmen found life again and traded baskets with UCA until Johnson started the DSU 20-2 run with 6: 44 left.
UCA turned the ball over five times in the next four minutes and didn’t get a single bucket until Joey Cortez broke the silence and brought the Bears to within one, 59-58 with 2:13 to go.
DSU was unable to get anything on its next possession and the Bears looked to take the lead. Fred Campbell provided a nice pump fake and then got plowed over. The official didn’t see it the way most of the Farris Center crowd did and called Campbell for traveling.
“All I saw was Fred making a good pump fake and then the next thing I know is he’s on his back,” Chappell said of the traveling call. “I wish we had instant replay for that one.”
The Bears took quick three-pointers on the remainder of their possessions and were forced to foul Delta the rest of the way. The Statesmen were only 3-of-6 on their last three trips to the line.
“Down the stretch I don’t think you could say our shot selection was terrible,” Chappell said. “But we probably shot a few of them too quick.”
Victor Brown was a key for the Statesmen during their 20-2 run. He had four points, two rebounds, one assist and one block during the run. He finished the game with 12 points.
“Vincent Brown was big for them down the stretch,” Chappell said. “We didn’t have another guy to put on him to matchup with his size and ability to make baskets.”
Brown and Johnson combine to make up one of the largest front courts in the GSC.
The Bears ran out to a 6-0 lead to start the game, but Delta was able to stop the bleeding early and tie the game at 14 with 12:30 left in the first half.
UCA took the lead back after hitting three straight 3-pointers. First Darryl Jones made it 26-24, Johnson hit a 3 to make it 27-26, then Joey Cortez and Campbell hit two more 3s to give UCA the 32-29 advantage going to the locker room.
Jones led the Bears with 15 points, Cortez had 13 and lead the team with six rebounds. Stephin Booth had nine points and Aubrey Bruner pitched in seven.
Both teams shot 49 percent from the field, the Bears shot 43.8 percent from 3-point territory, DSU shot just 33.3 percent from deep. Both teams were ugly from the free-throw line, where Delta was 10-of-17 for 58.8 percent and UCA was 3-of-9 for 33.3 percent.
The Bears will be back at home Monday to take on Arkansas-Monticello at 8 p.m.
Campbell's last-second 3 gives Bears huge road win
January 17, 2006
by Kai Caddy
SEARCY — “All my shots feel good, but this one was the best.”
That’s how Fred Campbell described his game-winning 3-pointer to give the UCA Bears a 70-69 win Monday night at Harding.
Trailing 69-67 the Bears (11-4, 4-1) had 32 seconds to come up with something to tie or win. Joey Cortez bought the ball up the court, the Bears took a timeout to draw up the final play. The plan was for Cortez to penetrate and to kick it to Darryl Jones on the baseline for a jumper.
Sometimes the plan doesn’t always work. Three Bisons (9-5, 1-3) collapsed on Jones and after looking for a shot, kicking it back to Cortez, Cortez kicking it back to Jones, Jones glanced over and saw a wide-open Campbell in the corner. He got it out to him for the game-winner with seven seconds to go.
“I thought we were 6-1 on the road and we’re going for the W,” Campbell said. “I was wide open for the J and I hit it. I actually told Coach with about 12 minutes left that I was feeling it. But they were bringing awesome defense. Credit to their coaches for the job they did, but then No. 14 left me open and I hit it.”
Campbell finished with just five points, but he was feeling his shot.
“Me and DJ were actually working on spot-shooting just this morning,” he said.
Guard Aubrey Bruner felt good about the shot, as well.
“Clutch – that’s Fred Campbell, I didn’t expect anything less,” he said.
For the majority of the second half the Bears held on to the lead, but the Bisons would not go away. The Bears were even able to quiet the always-raucus crowd at Rhodes Field House a time or two.
“In a place like this you have to control the tempo and try to keep the crowd out of it,” coach Rand Chappell said. “At time we did a good job of doing that. We’ve got some througohbreads that want to run a little bit, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but we made just enough good decisions tonight.”
The Bears held a 62-57 lead with 7:24 left, but Harding slowly chipped away. The Bisons took the lead at 63-62 with 5:12 left when Reggie Bibb hit a jumper.
The game went back and forth and the score was stuck on 67-67 from 2:42 until Harding’s Alassane Savadogo hit a shot with 32 seconds left to give the Bisons the lead before Campbell’s heroics silenced the crowd.
“This is a tough place to win,” Chappell said. “This is the kind of game that if you win, you remember it the rest of your life. Most of our guys only get one or two chances to play here, but this was the last chance for a lot of them and I definitely think they’ll remember it.”
The Bears were fresh off a tough loss at home to Henderson State last Thursday.
“I’m proud of the way the came back from the tough defeat the other night,” Chappell said. “I’ve said all year that I’m proud of this team’s character and their want to and they showed that tonight.”
Jones returned from a two-game absence due to illness, and came out on fire hitting the Bears’ first seven points. He finished with 16 points to lead the Bears despite being in foul trouble most of the night.
While Jones was on the bench in foul trouble, Bruner stepped in and hit four-of-six three pointers. He was also three-of-four from the free-throw line to finish with 15 points.
“I’ve been trying to give us a spark,” he said. “We didn’t have DJ for a couple games and the coaches have been on me to come in and knock down shots.”
Bruner is shooting 47 percent over the last three games, well above his season average of 31.6 percent.
LeMar Phillips came off the bench to add 12 points and six rebounds for the Bears. Cortez lead the team with nine rebounds and had seven points, Stephin Booth also added seven.
Harding’s leading scorer Ronnie Smith gave the Bears problems and led all-scorers with 17 points.
“Well, we never really solved our problems [with Smith],” Chappell said. “But, I guess that gives you something to work on for next time.”
Savadogo had 14 points, Patrick Andrepont finished with 11 points. Ceso Sprewell had eight points and a team-high seven rebounds, Cole Kee came off the bench for eight points for the Bisons.
The Bears will be back at home Thursday to take on league-leading Delta State. The Statesmen (13-1, 4-0) are currently riding a nine-game winning streak and knocked off Southern Arkansas 77-62 Monday. Tip-off will be 8 p.m.
No last-second heroics this time, Sugar Bears win by 12
by Josh Goff
SEARCY — In a vast departure from their last three games, the Sugar Bears shunned last-second heroics and the dramatic flair in favor of wrapping a game up relatively early and coasting to a victory as they staved off a pesky Harding team 88-76 at Rhodes Fieldhouse on Monday night.
“You’re never really happy as to how you get the win, but you’re happy it’s a W in the end,” UCA coach Checola Seals said. “We gave up a lot of points tonight, but when you look at it, it doesn’t matter how many you gave up. It’s a win.”
UCA (12-4, 4-1 GSC) allowed a lot of points to the Lady Bisons (8-7, 0-4), but scored a lot more – topping their then-season high of 87 at Texas Tyler – on the strength of 33-of-44 shooting at the free throw line. The most they’d made in a game prior was 20 against OBU.
“That’s wonderful, especially when you do it at somebody else’s house,” Seals said. “Usually that doesn’t happen.”
Just more than half of UCA’s points from the line came from Caronica Randle, who scored 17 of her game-high 26 points on free throws – missing just once in 18 attempts.
“Caronica understood anytime we get into the bonus we’re supposed to attack,” Seals said. “She knew they were shorter and were flying out at her trying to defend the jump shot and she was able to attack off of that, and that was huge for us.”
Up three with 11:24 remaining in the game, the Sugar Bears started to pull away thanks to some outstanding grunt work from center Shannon Oden, who scored four points off offensive rebounds on consecutive possessions, with a defensive rebound sandwiched in between. Two trips later, she buried a 3 to put UCA ahead 63-53 – its first double-digit lead of the night.
“Shannon’s been playing well for us the last couple games,” Seals said. “She’s really come along and is understanding what we’re needing her to do. She’s playing big for us. She seems to be in the right place at the right time. She hit a couple 3s, got a couple key rebounds. When she’s ready to play, she’s ready to play. She was able to give us a huge lift, and we needed that.”
Oden finished with a career-high 13 points, grabbed a season-high 8 rebounds (4 offensive), and tied career highs with 2 steals and assists.
After Oden’s three, Harding answered back with one of their own from Catherine McMenamy, who led the Lady Bisons with 24 points. Leading seven, the Sugar Bears were able to steal the momentum back and distance themselves from Harding for good when Allyson Sample went on a tear – scoring UCA’s next 11 points and keeping the lead in double digits.
“I noticed the momentum was swinging more toward us there,” Sample said. “Vic and Shannon had just gotten some big offensive rebounds, and I knew it swung when we went up double digits.”
Sample got things rolling with a free throw, then hit 3s on back-to-back trips to push the lead to 12. After a 3:44 scoring drought for the Sugar Bears, she struck again with her fourth 3 of the night to put UCA up 11 with 3:58 to go.
Sample finished with 14 points, hitting 4-of-9 3s and going 2-4 from the free throw line, after going 0-7 from the floor and being shut out against Henderson State last Thursday.
“I feel a lot better,” she said. “I’ve been doing a lot of extra shooting the last couple days. I don’t want to be going 0-fer every night. Tonight my confidence was a little bit back up. Vic kept talking me up and told me I could knock them down. If my teammates have faith in me and my coach does, then I’ll hit one sooner or later. Coach Seals told me I can’t miss them all.”
UCA placed four players in double figures scoring, with Lauren Williams scoring 10 to accompany Randle, Sample and Oden. Williams also had 7 rebounds and 5 assists in 29 minutes.
The win keeps the Sugar Bears a half game ahead of Delta State for second in the GSC West Division, with each team getting their lone conference loss at the hands of Henderson State. As luck would have it, the Lady Statesmen travel to Conway on Thursday.
“It feels good,” Sample said of Monday’s win. “We’re ready to keep the streak going and we’re going to try to. We’ve got Delta Thursday, so we’re ready to start working for them.”
No comeback this time for Sugar Bears
January 13, 2006
by Josh Goff
Not this time.
The Sugar Bears have had a flair for the dramatic early this conference season, winning their last two games in the final minute by a combined four points, both on the last-second play of Renita Dobbins.
Tonight in the Farris Center against the No. 8 Henderson State Lady Reddies (14-1, 4-0), Dobbins and the Sugar Bears (11-4, 3-1) looked primed for an encore performance, repeating Monday’s Tech performance and erasing a 10-point deficit in the game’s final five minutes.
However, after Dobbins’ buzzer-beating jumper forced overtime, the Sugar Bears squandered a five-point lead and were outscored 6-0 in the game’s final minute as they committed two costly turnovers in the final 30 seconds to allow HSU to escape with a 77-73 victory.
“The turnovers were a huge factor because you have to take care of the basketball,” UCA coach Checola Seals said. “We were a little lax in taking care of the basketball and that showed. That allowed them to get some extra looks at the basket and some extra possessions. If you can’t take care of the basketball, what do you expect at that point?”
The two teams combined for 55 turnovers, with UCA committing 27 and HSU 28. But it was the two down the stretch that kept UCA from getting baskets and forced them to send the Lady Reddies to the line time and time again.
“We didn’t get our defensive stops when we were supposed to, and it started with a foul on a guard and that changed the momentum up,” Seals said. “When that happened they were able to get to the free throw line on us.”
The Lady Reddies built a 10-point lead at the 4:43 mark of the second half as the Sugar Bears were mired in a 5:39 scoring drought, going ahead 58-48 on a Shondra Bush layup.
Then, mirroring the Tech game, Lauren Williams got things rolling with back-to-back baskets to cut it to six. HSU looked unfazed when Lauren Hill pushed the lead back to nine with a 3 with just 3:12 remaining.
It was then that UCA kicked it into overdrive, ripping off the next nine points on four straight points from Caronica Randle (who finished with a game-high 28), a steal and layup by Williams, and an acrobatic, nearly-impossible layup from Dobbins who was fouled on the play and hit the ensuing free throw to tie the game at 61.
Henderson’s Ashley Perry, who scored 10 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, scored with 4.3 seconds left to give the Lady Reddies the lead once more.
The Sugar Bears got the ball to midcourt and called timeout with 2.5 seconds to go. On the inbounds play, Shannon Oden got the ball in to Dobbins who quickly dribbled just inside the top of the key and knocked home a jumper to send the game to overtime.
“We came back, just how we do every game – with heart and determination,” Randle said. “We wanted that game bad, but everything happens for a reason.”
HSU struck first in the extra period, getting another bucket from Perry. UCA answered right back with seven consecutive points, as Randle sank a jumper, Oden buried a pair of free throws, and Randle came back again with a 3 to put UCA up 70-65. After Randle hit one of two free throws with 1:06 to go, UCA led 73-71. HSU took the lead for good with 51 seconds remaining when Keisha Blackwell knocked home a long-distance shot for three of her team-leading 16 points. They closed it out with three free throws in the final 26 seconds from Angelique Baulding and Rayna Hare, as UCA never really got a chance to answer due to turnovers.
“I’m very pleased with how we fought,” said freshman guard Mariesha Piggee – who ended the night with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals. “We never gave up. We never give up, we’re always gonna fight to the end.”
Piggee got off to a hot start, getting 6 points, 3 boards, a block and a steal in eight first-half minutes before getting into foul trouble. After taking a 13-6 lead on Piggee’s last score of the first half with 14:11 to go, UCA conceded a 24-5 run to the Lady Reddies over the next 8:37 – mostly with Piggee sitting.
“I felt real good from the beginning and I thought I was going to get it all night and be open,” she said. “But, it just didn’t happen. I saw the game starting to change [after picking up the second foul] and we were lagging on defense a little, and we weren’t getting baskets when we needed them.”
Taking the loss in stride, the Sugar Bears plan to use this game as motivation instead of dwelling on it.
“You’ll never see me hanging my head,” Randle said. “We’ve got plenty more games to work on, we just have to go and get our minds ready for Harding on Monday and move on.”
Seals, who said her team didn’t take care of business, is looking forward to getting back to it.
“We go to Harding on Monday,” she said. “You lick your wounds, you regroup, and then you get ready for business on Monday.”
Even still, Piggee is looking to get back at the Reddies on their own home floor later in the season.
“Oh yeah, we’re taking that from them,” she said. “We’re getting that one back.”
Lackluster effort costs Bears in end
January 12, 2006
by Kai Caddy
A late defensive push couldn’t save the UCA Bears Thursday night as they fell for the first time in Gulf South Conference play at the hands of the Henderson State Reddies 59-53.
Henderson (4-7, 1-3) held a nine-point lead with 2:01 to go in the game. After a couple Fred Campbell free throws the Bears (10-4, 3-1) turned up the defensive pressure and forced a Ryan Johnson turnover. Then LeMar Phillips hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four, 55-51.
UCA cut the lead to two when Joey Cortez, who finished with a team-high 20 points, drove into the lane and hit a layup to make it 55-53 with 1:10 left.
Two turnovers and a flurry of missed shots in the remaining 1:10 led to the Bears eventual downfall.
“We just let that one kind of slip away,” Cortez said. “It was just a total lack of team concentration tonight. I don’t think we ran one play right out of the huddle tonight. I don’t think it’s anything we can put our finger on, but you can’t wait until the last two minutes to start playing defense. This was a real wake up call for us.”
There weren’t many bright spots for the Bears on Thursday. They turned the ball over 18 times, to only seven assists. However, they did cause 18 turnovers.
“This was just a lackluster effort tonight,” coach Rand Chappell said. “It was lackluster from the first play. There were inspired moments and I’ proud that we competed for the last five minutes.”
The Bears were once again without leading scorer Darryl Jones, who has been sick.
“We’re a pretty good team that’s got to be on top of its game to win,” Chappell said.
Cortez shot 10-of-13 from the free throw line and grabbed five rebounds to go with his 20 points.
“[Cortez] had some positive plays, but we need them from a lot of people,” Chappell said. “I don’t know if anyone gets five starts for the evening.”
The Bears trailed 32-29 at the half and were shooting 45.5 percent despite the offense looking sluggish. HSU shot 50 percent in the first half.
In the second half the Reddies turned up their offense and shot 56.3 percent for the half. Kelvin Brown dominated the Bears with a career-high 28 points, 19 of which came in the second half.
HSU shot 50 percent from the 3-point line on the night.
“We had no consistency on the offensive end,” Chappell said. “I’m disappointed in the execution. When you execute you good shots, when you don’t you get shaky shots and we got shaky shots tonight. We didn’t have the consistent effort we needed for 40 minutes.”
Phillips had 14 points for the Bears on 6-of-10 shooting. Campbell had 10 points.
Brown was the only Reddie in double figures, but Johnson had nine points and six assists.
The Bears will try to right the ship Monday night when they have to travel to Searcy to take on Harding at 8 p.m.
“We let this one at home get away from us,” Cortez said. “We should have won this one and now we’re going to have to go to one of the toughest places to play in the country to try and get back on track.”
Dobbins' steal, Randle's layup seal deal for Sugar Bears
January 10, 2006
by Josh Goff
RUSSELLVILLE — It was a couple days late, but the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns gave Renita Dobbins a wonderful birthday present Monday night – gift-wrapping an important 63-62 GSC road win for Dobbins and the Sugar Bears in a frenzied finish at Tucker Coliseum.
Trailing by one with 3.6 seconds to go and Tech inbounding the ball, the Sugar Bears were in desperate need of a quick turnover.
Tech was more than happy to oblige.
Instead of a simple inbounds play, the Golden Suns opted to throw the ball down the baseline and then go for the long pass, but the lazy lob pass came up short of its intended target, and right into the hands of Dobbins, who took advantage of a slow clock and dribbled in and found Caronica Randle wide open on the block. Randle hauled in the pass, gathered herself, and flipped the shot up and in right as the buzzer sounded.
“That was just freelancing,” said Dobbins, who had 8 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 point on the night. “I just got the steal and knew we had to score. I saw Caronica open and I knew she could make it, cuz I hadn’t made a shot all night. It seemed like it was about 10 seconds – I don’t think they started the clock on time.”
The decisive steal and assist made the second time in three days that Dobbins, who celebrated her 21st birthday Saturday by finishing off OBU, had played the role of hero.
She had the chance to do it sooner, going to the line for a pair with the Sugar Bears trailing by two with 3.6 remaining, but missed the first.
“She did,” UCA coach Checola Seals said of Dobbins’ again displaying her knack for coming up with the big play. “Renita did a good job. I knew she was frustrated when she missed that free throw, but I’ll still take her at the free throw line anytime. They wind up running that switch-a-roo play on us, and we told them to not get beat backdoor. That girl threw it long and underthrew it, Renita went up and got it. My heart … I don’t know where my heart went – I must be living right. Renita dribbles in, sees her girl on the block and saw Caronica open. She gave a great pass to Caronica – that was a long 3.6 seconds. I think they might’ve held the clock on that.”
The Sugar Bears found themselves down 10 with 5:40 to play after ATU’s Christy Mahan, the game’s leading scorer with 24, hit her sixth 3 of the night to push Tech’s lead to 56-46.
But UCA, used to playing in big games, would not be deterred.
“We were down 10 with like three minutes left and I was like ‘look, we can come back. Just keep your head up.’,” Randle said. “With this team this year, everybody can score so we climbed back even when I was out. The people that were in there got the game back. I knew they could do it.”
The Sugar Bears rallied from that point, scoring the next six points on two Randle free throws and back-to-back buckets by Lauren Williams. The lead was sliced to two when Williams forced a Tech turnover and freshman Mariesha Piggee scored two of her career-high 10 points on a layup to make the score 56-54 with 3:11 remaining.
After two more free throws by ATU, Dobbins began dishing out assists – one to Piggee and then two more to Williams to tie the game at 60.
“I was thinking ‘We gotta get up’, that’s it,” Dobbins said. “We weren’t thinking about anything else. We were supposed to be running plays, but we were just kinda playing streetball, trying to drive because they were in the bonus so we were trying to drive in and draw fouls.”
That slashing philosophy proved fruitful for UCA, as Tech couldn’t come up with the necessary adjustments to stop Dobbins from getting inside and creating near the basket.
“The kind of defense they were playing, they weren’t playing the drive, they were just playing the shot,” Dobbins said.
Williams, who was the beneficiary of Dobbins’ drives, finished the game with a UCA career high-tying 14 points and enjoyed every minute of it.
“That was exciting, it was fun,” she said. “We just kept saying we were going to stay with it and keep fighting back. We just had to chip away a little bit at a time. Once we got it back to four we had the momentum. Renita sees everything. You get to the right spot and she’ll get you the ball.”
Williams’ clutch performance during the game’s critical juncture came as no real surprise to Seals.
“Lauren is like a silent killer,” she said. “You really don’t realize what she has until you look at the stats. You know she’s doing her job, she’s making her shots and layups, but she’s not doing anything spectacular and that’s the thing we liked about her coming out of JUCO.”
The win is UCA’s sixth straight over ATU, including the fourth in a row at Tucker Coliseum. With only Tech’s trip to Conway left in the series, it was a magnificent way for UCA to say farewell to Russellville.
“I am so excited this is the last time I will have to play inside Tucker Coliseum,” Seals said. “I really want to go to halfcourt and kiss it, but I’m not going to do that. And, I’m happy this series is almost over. I’m glad it’s over. It’s been a great series and you hate to see this rivalry end but you’re glad to see it end because you’re ready to start some new rivalries.”
Birthday girl puts finishing touches on Lady Tigers
January 08, 2006
by Josh Goff
On her 21st birthday, Renita Dobbins put the icing on the cake.
Dobbins, who banked home a 3 at the end of regulation last year to force overtime in an eventual win against Ouachita Baptist, celebrated her birthday by again sending the Lady Tigers (11-2, 0-2) home disappointed – this time hitting a pair of free throws with 8.7 seconds left to give the Sugar Bears (10-3, 2-0) a 67-64 win.
“Renita knows how to win a ballgame,” UCA coach Checola Seals said. “She stepped up, she’s going to hit her free throws.”
Dobbins, the team’s second leading scorer, had 6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 4 assists on the night against a team she seemingly owns.
“I’m up for any challenge,” she said. “Whoever we’re playing, I’m ready. So much happened between that game last year and today I forgot all about that game last year.”
It’s a good bet OBU hadn’t, and Saturday night’s game was another haunting reminder. Not only did Dobbins stick the dagger in at the end once more, but the defensive tenacity she and the rest of the Sugar Bears displayed gave OBU fits all game, forcing 20 turnovers.
“I call that defense, that’s awesome defense,” Seals said. “The point guard had 10 turnovers, we did a really good job on that tonight. You’ve got Piggee, she’s playing great man-to-man defense. Then, you look up and you’ve got Renita so you don’t get a chance to rest.”
In all, the Sugar Bears had 11 steals and kept OBU under 40 percent shooting.
“We’re still trying to learn each other but it’s coming along real good,” Dobbins said. “We’re really clicking on defense right now, and tonight we were playing good man-up D.”
The teams battled back and forth in the first half, with OBU taking the game’s biggest lead to that point at 21-16 with 6:47 to go before the break.
And then Allyson Sample got started.
Sample, who netted 12 of her game-high 17 point in the first half, scored nine of UCA’s 11 points over the next 1:42, and added three more free throws as UCA built a 32-27 lead with a minute left.
“They paid so much attention to Caronica and the post players that they probably weren’t really aware that I could hit a couple shots now and then,” Sample said.
Caronica Randle, who had 16 points in the game, closed the half with a 35-foot running 3 as the buzzer sounded, giving UCA a 35-28 halftime edge.
“That gave us a boost at halftime,” she said. “We were only up four and that put us up seven and helped us out a whole lot. We were ready after that. We came out wanting it, and the fans helped out so much.”
UCA kept the lead until the 13:14 point of the second half, losing it when OBU went on a 7-0 run in 34 seconds thanks to a technical foul on Sample.
OBU’s Magen Rogers hit two free throws, and Lindsey Dooley (the nation’s leading free-throw shooter) hit both ends of the technical free throws and followed it up with a 3 a few seconds later. She added another layup 45 seconds later, extending OBU’s lead to four, 47-43.
Looking for some vindication after the T, Sample drained a 3 and came right back with a pair of free throws to get the Sugar Bears ahead three, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“Ally’s huge for us,” Seals said. “We had to get her calmed back down after that technical. She was frustrated – ther was a lot of pushing and stuff going on and she’s young. You’ve got to remember she’s a sophomore and she didn’t play a lot her freshman year (at Austin Peay), so her maturity is coming. She finally got a cool head and was able to give us big minutes.”
“I made a mistake,” Sample said. “I’ve got to keep a cool head. I didn’t really pay attention to [the five-point spurt giving the team a lift]. I just knew I had made a mistake and got us down again, and I couldn’t afford to screw up anymore. I was just trying to play my game and keep us on top, because I really needed to bounce back after what I’d done.”
Lauren Williams had 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists for the Sugar Bears, Victoria Richards had 7 points and 7 rebounds, and Shannon Oden added 7 and 5.
Phillips pours in 19, leads Bears past OBU
by Kai Caddy
Fans of defensive basketball would’ve been in heaven had they been in attendance Saturday night as Ouachita Baptist and UCA battled in the Farris Center.
Despite the Bears (9-3, 2-0) shooting just 33.3 percent they were able to wrestle away the lead from OBU (9-6, 1-1) and record a 61-58 win, thanks in large part to their 88.9 percent performance from the free-throw line.
“I tell the team all the time that you can win or lose the game from the free-throw line,” coach Rand Chappell said. “Well, tonight we won one from there.”
The Bears were 24-of-27 from the line, including big free throws from LeMar Phillips and Darryl Jones down the stretch.
Phillips, who finished with a game-high 19 points, tied the game at 53 with a free throw after grabbing an offensive board. Then he hit a jumper to give the Bears a 55-54 lead with 1:20 to go.
OBU’s Lucky Butler drove in and scored a layup to give the Tigers back he lead with 58 seconds left.
Justin Delamar sent Phillips back to the line, where he netted two free throws to make it 57-56 UCA. OBU missed a shot on its next possession and Phillips found himself back on the line. He pushed the lead to three with two more makes and only 17 ticks remaining.
Jaranimo Marks nailed a 10-foot jumper for the Tigers to cut the lead back to one, 59-58.
Jones was fouled right away and hit both of his free throws to make it 61-58.
“We come in and shoot free throws before practice, we shoot them after practice,” Phillips said. “It’s something the coaches really drive on us, is to shoot free throws. And I know if I miss them I’m gonna have three people on my back and I don’t want that.”
Phillips has been hot of late, averaging 16 points a game in the Bears last three outings. He also leads the team in rebounding, pulling down 6.7 a game.
“Teams have really ben clamping down on [Jones], so I’ve been getting a lot of looks,” Phillips said. “And my shots have been falling.”
The energetic Phillips is shooting over 56 percent in the last three games.
“LeMar has been excellent since Christmas,” Chappell said. “He was in foul trouble tonight, and that was giving us some problems but he was there for us in the clutch.”
Phillips said his energy comes from his mother.
“I play with a lot of energy and that just comes from me talking to my mom before every game,” he said. “She tells me to keep my eye on the ball and stay focused. That’s what really keeps me into it.”
The Bears found themselves down by as much as 11 in the first half, trailing 23-12 at one time. But six free throws from Jones and a 3 from Fred Campbell cut the lead to just four at the half.
UCA was 5-for-26 in the first half, good for 19.2 percent. OBU wasn’t faring much better, shooting just 38.5 percent. In the second half, though, both defenses were wore down a bit and shots were falling more frequently. The Bears shot 50 percent in the second going 11-of-22, OBU shot 54.2 percent.
The Bears opened up the second half with a 7-0 run sparked by four points from Fernando Johnson. But the Tigers wouldn’t go away and regained the lead and stayed about four points away most of the half.
Phillips kept the Tigers from running away from UCA, coming up with huge basket after huge basket. He converted a three-point play mid-way through the second half to cut the OBU lead to just two, 40-38. OBU opened it back up to a 44-40 lead before Phillips hit a 3 to cut the lead to just one.
UCA finished with 19 turnovers, OBU had 17.
“They forced 19 turnovers, but they gave us 27 free throws,” Chappell said. “This was an extremely hard-fought game. I told the team that this would be the best defensive team we played all year and they came out and really locked us down in the first half.”
Jones finished with 13 points and seven rebounds for the Bears. Joey Cortez had nine points and six assists, Fernando Johnson, Campbell, Stephin Booth and Chad Wise each added five points.
Butler led the Tigers with 17 points and eight rebounds. Marks added 14 points and Brandon Dawson had 10 for OBU.
The Bears will be back in action Monday when they travel to Russellville to take on rival Arkansas Tech at about 8 p.m.
Sugar Bears jump on CBU early, hang on for win
January 06, 2006
by Josh Goff
MEMPHIS — The Sugar Bears picked up right where they left off.
A year ago the UCA women’s basketball team ripped off 15 conference wins to a single loss en route to the GSC regular season title. Thursday night, they kicked off the 2006 GSC season with a 73-65 victory against the Lady Buccaneers (7-4, 0-1) on CBU’s home floor.
CBU jumped out to a 7-4 lead early, but the Sugar Bears (9-3, 1-0) went on a 23-0 run to surge ahead 27-7 and never looked back.
“It just takes a little while for us to get settled down,” Sugar Bears coach Checola Seals said. “We adjusted – I wasn’t too worried about it. We just gave up too many points. These kids will figure it out. We’re still trying to find ourselves in the dark, but it’s coming.”
The Sugar Bears were down three when freshman Mariesha Piggee got things rolling with a 3 to tie the game at 7. Shannon Oden canned a long two-pointer, Caronica Randle scored five straight, and then Allyson Sample hit a pair of 3s around a Victoria Richards 3, and the rout was on. Renita Dobbins, fresh into the game, made a steal and a layup and Randle hit two more free throws to put the Sugar Bears ahead 27-7 with 8:19 to go in the half.
CBU’s Erin Nigh finally broke the drought with a bucket at the 8:00 mark, and Mary Shea Hackett hit a jumper on the Lady Bucs’ next trip, but the damage had already been done.
“We were able to get some good shots,” Seals said. “Ally’s awesome. She gave us a lift and hit some key 3s for us. And we turned that defense up in the first half. Piggee did a great job with her on-ball defense.”
The Sugar Bears forced the Lady Bucs into several bad shots, leading CBU to shoot 9-for-29 from the field and 3-for-13 on 3s in the first half. Conversely, UCA shot 78 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, hitting 7-of-9, including one at the buzzer by junior guard Lauren Williams.
“We just came out wanting it,” said Randle, who led all scorers with 23. “Everybody out there for us can score. I think everybody hit [a 3]. It lets their post players know they have to guard our posts like guards and our guards like posts.”
Senior center Victoria Richards, who scored 12 points, hit her one 3-point attempt and Oden drained a long two where her toe was on the line, although she missed her one 3-point shot.
UCA got 15 points off the bench from Sample, who was 4-of-6 on 3s, while 6-foot freshman Brittany Greer added 5 rebounds and 5 steals.
The Sugar Bears also got a big boost from the resurgent play of Dobbins, who had been shelved with an ankle injury suffered in practice before the game at Evansville. Dobbins threw up 9 points and 6 assists in 21 minutes, and quickly quelled CBU’s hopes of applying an effective press.
“Renita had a good night,” Seals said. “We tried to get her back in from the ankle injury and get her situated and back into a feel for the game. Lauren [Williams] turned her ankle a little yesterday so we’re trying to keep her healthy.”
With a game tomorrow and another on Monday, Seals said keeping people fresh and healthy as possible is of utmost importance during this stretch.
“It’s a huge concern,” she said. “That’s why we tried to pull our starters and go with that second bunch. We’ve just got to get that second bunch to understand we can’t have letdowns.”
With the reserves taking most of the minutes, the Sugar
Bears got just four field goals in the game’s last 10 minutes and CBU scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points to make the final margin a more-respectable eight.
The Sugar Bears will play their first home game of the season tomorrow, although last night’s game almost seemed like one.
“For these kids it was almost like being at home,” Seals said. “You look into the stands and we’ve got so many fans here, it gave the kids an extra step.”
A large portion of the UCA congregation consisted of relatives of Randle, who is from nearby Forrest City.
“It’s good to be back home so our fans can come out,” she
said. “My whole family was here. I’ve got one side over there, that’s all family.”
Tomorrow, with OBU coming to Conway, UCA finally gets the real home game – which is even better.
“We’re ready to get back home and we’re glad OBU is our first opponent,” Seals said. “It’s personal. We got something for them … it’s personal.”
Bears hold off stingy Bucs in GSC opener
by Kai Caddy
MEMPHIS — UCA leading scorer Darryl Jones only managed 10 points, but with a little help from Fred Campbell and LeMar Phillips the Bears were able to hold off the Christian Brothers Buccaneers 64-55 in Thursday’s GSC opener.
“It feels real good [to win the GSC opener],” coach Rand Chappell said. “This is a tough place to play. Christian Brothers is well coached and they can really shoot the ball. Anytime you can come on the road and win a conference game it’s nice.”
In 34 minutes Campbell scored 16 points to lead the Bears (8-3, 1-0) on 7-of-12 shooting. He also pitched in three assists and four steals and no turnovers. Phillips had 15 points.
“Fred’s really starting to shoot the ball well,” Chappell said. “LeMar is a guy who came back from Christmas with a lot of energy.”
CBU (6-5, 0-1) opened up a five-point lead to begin the game, it would be the biggest lead the Bucs would have, but they would not go away.
With the Bucs up 11-8 early in the first half, UCA went on a 10-0 run to take its first lead of the ball game. Joey Cortez hit a jumper to start the run, then Campbell hit a 3, got a steal and hit a layup, then after another CBU turnover ended the run with another 3.
UCA continued to pour it on for a couple more minutes, pulling out to a 22-14 lead, its biggest of the half. CBU snuck back into the game and tied it five more times before the half ended. The Bears broke the fifth tie with eight seconds left on an Aubrey Bruner jumper to make it 36-34 going into the half.
The Bucs took the lead briefly at the start of the second half when Justin Ray hit a 3 to make it 41-40. The lead didn’t last long as Phillips answered right back with a 3 of his own to put the Bears back up for good with 15: 32 left in the game.
“[CBU] will work you to death,” Chappell said. “This is one of those games where we were barely in the lead throughout and we were able to hold them off.”
UCA opened up its first nine-point lead with 6:53 left, 58-49. CBU cut the lead to 60-55 with 2:42 left. The lead would remain five points until the Bears finally scored again with 33 seconds left. Phillips hit a jumper to make it 62-55 and two Chad Wise free throws with 24 seconds left rounded out the scoring.
Chappell said Bruner was a “spark off the bench” as he finished with 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting. Cortez didn’t have one of his greatest shooting games, going just 2-of-10, but grabbed team highs in rebounds and assists with six and seven, respectively.
“Joey has a little bit of an ankle injury that he suffered in practice on Wednesday,” Chappell said. “He was questionable for tonight’s game. He probably played his best just in the last eight or 10 minutes.”
Weybright led the Bucs in scoring with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds. Nick Kohs pitched in 14 points and nine boards for CBU, Sam Bradley had 11 points.
The Bears return to the Farris Center on Saturday in a GSC battle with Ouachita Baptist. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
