UCA women’s basketball continues to dominate at home after beating the North Florida Ospreys 58-44 on Feb. 3.
The Sugar Bears (16-6, ASUN 8-1) played great defensively by defending the perimeter allowing the Ospreys (7-15, ASUN 1-7) to shoot 24% (5-21) from three.
“You try to eliminate the ones over there that you don’t want shooting threes,” coach Tony Kemper said. “Maybe a couple of blown coverages where they got some up. So sometimes you get lucky.”
“We needed to guard them well. We didn’t want to make it difficult for 22 [North Florida’s redshirt senior guard Lyric Swann] and for the most part, we kinda did that.”
Kemper praised the growth of the team’s helping defense.
“I thought our help defense was a little bit more aggressive tonight, I think that’s growing,” he said.
The Sugar Bears led the whole game, with a score of 30-19 at halftime. They led as much as 16 in the third quarter.
The help came from junior forward Bree Stephens who had 10 points, two steals and four assists.
“Probably just to hit more open shots [on second-half adjustments],” junior forward Bree Stephens said.
“We got good looks, the defense was great that first half so just making a second-chance play and getting more rebounds,” Kemper said.
The Sugar Bears are looking ahead to their upcoming back-to-back away games.
Junior forward Bree Stephens protects the ball from the defender. The Sugar Bears won the game 58-44.
“It’s just the same preparation as every game like we do. We get ourselves prepared and then we know what they are trying to run against us,” Stephens said. “Then obviously we have to do recovery.”
“It’s one of the toughest places to play in the country,” Kemper said. “We know it’s going to be difficult, but I also think it’s happening at a good time for us too.”
The Sugar Bears’ next game will be away against the defending ASUN champions Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (19-4, ASUN 9-0) at 6:00 p.m. Feb 8. A win would put the Sugar Bears first in the ASUN Conference.