The UCA women’s basketball team left Tennessee battered and bruised following two losses after facing the Austin Peay Governors and the Lipscomb Bisons.
The Sugar Bears (18-10, ASUN 10-5) played hardball against the Governors (14-14, ASUN 7-7), playing a close game before slipping up in the third quarter, losing 54-42.
Although the Bisons (16-11, ASUN 9-5) held the lead for the majority of the game, the Saturday match-up proved the Sugar Bears to be a formidable opponent for Lipscomb, especially with a fierce fourth quarter.
UCA began the Feb. 22 game against Austin Peay with a layup from junior guard Leah Mafua, giving the Sugar Bears an early upper hand, only for their lead to come crashing down when graduate student guard/forward Cur’Tiera Haywood landed a clean 3-pointer.
A little under a minute later, Leah Mafua responded to Haywood with a 3-pointer for the Sugar Bears. Both teams continued to one-up each other point-after-point until UCA junior guard Jade Upshaw scored a 3-pointer nearly seven and a half minutes into the game — the Sugar Bears up 16-12.
The Sugar Bears continued to further the gap with two free throws from freshman guard Cheyanne Kemp, but Austin Peay ended the first quarter with a layup in the paint by Haywood.
It took a little over two minutes into the second quarter before either team could score, the Governors finally breaking the silence with a layup by graduate student center Shamarre Hale.
With Austin Peay only two points behind, the Sugar Bears widened the gap once again after junior guard Kinley Fisher scored a layup and Upshaw bagged a jump shot.
Yet even with the extra 4 points, it wasn’t enough to put down the Governors, as Hale grabbed yet another 2 points with a layup, and junior guard Abby Cater landed a 3-pointer, putting Austin Peay only one point behind the Sugar Bears, 22-21.
The Sugar Bears attempted to regain their footing when freshman forward Elizabeth Abiara scored a free throw, but the Governors equaled the score with a jump shot from graduate student guard Tiya Douglas. The second quarter ended 23-23.
Austin Peay rushed past the Sugar Bears at the beginning of the third quarter, allowing sophomore guard Anala Nelson to score a jump shot in the paint, putting the Governors in the lead for the first time.
While the Sugar Bears managed to equal out the score once again with a layup from Leah Mafua, Haywood responded with a layup and a 3-pointer for the Governors.
Cater followed up Haywood’s 3-pointer with a 3-pointer of her own, giving Austin Peay a 6-point lead, 31-25.
The Governors continued to grow their lead, eventually building to a 13-point lead with a minute and 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Despite Fisher closing out the third quarter with a layup for the Sugar Bears, it was only a dent in the Governors’ 11-point lead, 42-31.
Haywood scored the first 2 points of the fourth quarter seven minutes and 47 seconds in with two free throws. Haywood continued to dominate the court scoring yet another 3-pointer a little over a minute later.
The Sugar Bears were unable to rekindle their energy and overtake the governors; the closest they were able to get was an 8-point difference, giving Austin Peay the win, 54-42.
The Sugar Bears played their second game of the week the following Saturday against Lipscomb.
The Bisons took the first 2 points of the game with two free throws from redshirt junior forward Aleah Sorrentino.
The Sugar Bears responded only 9 seconds later with a layup from junior forward Cheyenne Banks.
Lipscomb once again took the lead with a 3-pointer from sophomore forward Taylor Bowen. Upshaw went on to score UCA a 3-pointer before Bison junior guard Claira McGowan obtained Lipscomb’s second 3-pointer of the afternoon only 18 seconds later.
With nearly five minutes left of the first quarter, Bowen bagged yet another 3-pointer, giving the Bisons a 4-point lead, 11-7.
Junior guard Leah Mafua looks for an opening to shoot.
Lipscomb pushed forward to a 6-point lead until Leah Mafua scored a layup, deflating the score back to a 4-point difference.
With two minutes and twenty seconds remaining, Leah Mafua landed a 3-pointer, giving the Sugar Bears their first lead of the game. However, their time on top didn’t last long, as Bison sophomore guard Molly Heard helped regain the lead with a 3-pointer.
Both teams scored one more layup before wrapping up the first quarter, Lipscomb in the lead 20-18.
UCA began the second quarter taking back the lead after junior guard Jenna Rose Mafua opened with a 3-pointer.
The second quarter proved to be far slower in terms of points captured, as only eight total baskets were made.
Similar to the first quarter, the second quarter ended with a close call; the Bisons were ahead by only one point, 26-25.
The third quarter, however, proved to have far less of a scoring drought, Lipscomb opening with a 3-pointer from graduate student guard Blythe Pearson.
The Bisons held the lead for the entire third quarter, going so far as to build the point difference up to 18 points.
Although the Sugar Bears strived to keep up with Lipscomb, they were only able to score a total of 14 points compared with the Bisons’ 30 points. The Bisons finished the third quarter ahead, 56-39.
While Lipscomb held a fairly large lead on UCA, it didn’t deter them from pushing forward.
UCA junior guard Randrea Wright began the fourth quarter with two layups, grabbing a jump shot nearly three minutes later.
With almost five minutes remaining in the game, Upshaw managed to score the Sugar Bears two 3-pointers, pushing the 17-point difference at the beginning of the quarter down to 5-points.
Pearson scored the Bisons a 3-pointer with nearly 3 minutes remaining in the game, this being Lipscomb’s first basket of the final quarter, 59-51.
UCA then brought the score difference down to 4 points following a jump shot from Wright and a layup from Leah Mafua. After trading shots a few more times, Wright managed to bring the score down to only a two-point difference, 61-59.
The game ended with the Bisons landing four free throw shots, one from Heard, one from Pearson and two from McGowan, earning Lipscomb the win 65-59.
The Sugar Bears’ next game will have them roaring against the North Alabama Lions (12-16, ASUN 8-7) for their final game of the season at 1 p.m., March 2, in Conway.