The Sugar Bears lost both games on the road this week against Northwestern State University (18-12, 11-7 SLC) and Stephen F. Austin University (19-11, 13-5) dropping to the No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference.
UCA (18-11, 12-6 SLC) lost to the Lady Demons 77-45 on March 6 at Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches, La.
The Sugar Bears started out giving up a 6-0 run to NSU before answering with their own 6-0 run.
Freshman guard Maggie Proffitt hit one 3-pointer during that run.
Proffitt shot 50 percent for the rest of the half. UCA Senior center Courtney Duever and Lady Demon freshman forward Kourtney Pennywell lead all scorers with eight points in the half.
Duever and junior foreword Teri Sadler lead the Sugar Bears with four rebounds.
The beginning of the first half was well contested and the Lady Demons stretched their lead to double figures.
UCA fought back but it wasn’t enough to bring the NSU lead down. The score at the end of the first half was 31-18.
The game’s second half was all about the Lady Demons.
They started out the second half up 13 points and with 38 seconds left in the game they lead by 35 points.
NSU shot 61.3 percent from the field knocking down 19 of their 31 shots.
The Sugar Bears shot 34.5 percent from the field.
The Lady Demons outscored UCA 46-27 in the second half.
NSU also had a major advantage in points in the paint in the second half with 26 compared to the Sugar Bears eight points in the paint.
The Lady Demons won the game by a 32-point margin, this was the worst loss UCA has had all season.
Proffitt said the team’s offense was stagnant.
“We were not able to execute on the offensive end because our offense became stagnant against their zone defense.” she said.
The Sugar Bears had a chance for a share of the conference title with the loss.
The Sugar Bears also lost to the Stephen F. Austin University Ladyjacks, 61-41.
SFA started out on a 7-0 run that was halted by a layup from Duever, then the Ladyjacks went on 6-0 run.
UCA wasn’t able to get anything going and SFA kept building their lead. Duever made two of her five shots in the first half. The Sugar Bears also missed all seven of their 3-point attempts in the first half.
SFA hit all 10 of their free throws in the first half.
UCA shot 22.2 percent in the first half making six of their 22 shots.
The first half concluded with the Ladyjacks up by 16 points, 31-15.
The second half wasn’t much different with the Sugar Bears missing shots and free throws.
SFA didn’t shoot the ball very well but they made their free throws. UCA was 7 of 17 from the free throw line, 41.2 percent, while the Ladyjacks were 16 of 19, 84.2 percent.
The Sugar Bears missed all eight of their field goals between 18:42 and 13:29 left in the first half.
UCA was never able to pull the game within single digits in the second half.
The Sugar Bears were able to get the lead down to 11 points with a free throw by Duever.
That was as close as the game got.
The Ladyjacks last bucket came with 1:16 left in the first half to make the score 61-38. UCA scored three more points to make the final score 61-41.
The Sugar Bears shot 28.3 from the field for the game. They missed all 15 of their 3-pointers.
SFA won the rebounding battle with 49 rebounds compared to 41 reobunds pulled down by UCA.
This loss dropped the Sugar Bears to the No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference tournament with Lamar University and SFA being the No 1. and No. 2 seeds, respectively.
The Sugar Bears have a first round bye and play again March 14 in Katy, Texas. UCA will play the winner of game two of the SLC tournament, which features McNeese State University and Texas A&M — Corpus Christi.
Senior guard Micah Rice said that they will prepare but it comes down to playing hard.
“We will prepare as best we can but it all comes down to going out and playing hard,” she said. “We will get some rest and get up some shots. We will also work on things defensively that hurt us last weekend.”
If UCA wins its first game the team will have a rematch of the regular season closer against the SFA Ladyjacks.
The Sugar Bears split the season series with TAMUCC and won the game against McNeese by 15 points.
McNeese and TAMUCC also split their season series at one game each.
SFA has the most SLC tournament wins of any SLC team with 15 conference championships.
McNeese has the second most among active SLC teams with two championships.
UCA is the only team in the top four seeds that has not won a conference championship.
Lamar and NSU each have one conference championship.
The Sugar Bears split the season series with Oral Roberts University, the No. 8 seed and reigning SLC tournament champion.
The SLC tournament begins March 13, with the bottom four teams playing separate games.