The UCA Sugar Bears faced off against the Samford University Bulldogs on Nov. 8 at the Farris Center, which resulted in a comeback win for UCA, 63-44.
The Sugar Bears had a rough start to begin the first quarter with the Bulldogs going on a quick 8-2 run. The Sugar Bears were able to hang on being down by five points at the end of the first quarter with the score being 16-11. The Sugar Bears shot 33 percent and had seven turnovers in the first quarter. The Bulldogs were able to capitalize on this, making 11 points off of those turnovers.
Central Arkansas continued to struggle in the second quarter, while the Bulldogs outscored The Sugar Bears by six to take an 11-point lead going into half-time. The Sugar Bears shot 32 percent in the first half with eleven turnovers.
“I thought that we were really just out of sorts in the first half,” coach Tony Kemper said. For our team, it shouldn’t be the case because we’ve been through a lot of games together now. We have to handle our excitement better and earlier in the game.”
At the end of the first half the Sugar Bears were down 32-21.
Kemper said, “We really didn’t adjust much at half-time, we just needed to calm down and do the things that we were trying to do to begin with. They’re tough, they got after us, and they were very physical on the defensive end and I thought that over time we adjusted to that well. We played much better on both ends of the floor in the second half.”
The Sugar Bears locked in during halftime. Senior guards Leah Mafua and Jade Upshaw both dropped seven points to start things off which led to the Sugar Bears’ 18-0 run to begin the third quarter.
Senior Forward Cheyenne Banks said it was “exciting seeing all of the little kids,” cheering the team on for education day. Several schools from around the central Arkansas area came to support the Sugar Bears in their comeback win.
“They were cheering like crazy. I remember one time they got so loud I think that I almost went deaf in there, but it definitely makes us very excited,” she said.
Kemper also thought that the Farris Center was loud, losing his voice by the end of the game.
“We were just a mess in the first half, so I think that having this game today, there’s some lesson learned in there about what the focus level has to be in the right moments to make sure that we’re on the same page, and that got better in the second half among other things,” he said. “I appreciated them [students] being here, I thought that our marketing staff and everybody worked really hard to get a good group in here, and it’s definitely something that we want to grow. We still have some empty seats in there, so maybe next year we can get bigger.”
The Sugar Bears will travel to Martin, Tennessee, at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 to play their third game of the season.