After picking up a 65-50 win against the McNeese State University Cowgirls on Jan. 30, the Sugar Bears basketball team ended its winning streak at Nicholls State University on Feb. 1.

UCA started out scoring against the Cowgirls with a pair of free throws from three-time Southland Conference Player of the Week Courtney Duever, senior center, and didn’t give up the lead the rest of the game.

Freshman guard Maggie Proffitt led all scorers with 12 points in the first half.

Proffitt also hit two 3-pointers. Duever added nine points and six rebounds and freshman guard Brianna Mullins added eight points.

The Cowgirls didn’t have an answer to the Sugar Bears’ high-octane offense.

UCA shot 53.1 percent in the first half.

On the other hand, the Sugar Bears defense started out strong, holding the Cowgirls to shooting 35.5 percent and only scoring 27 points in the first half.

Headed into halftime, with the score at 46-27 it looked like UCA would cruise to a win.

The team ended the half with a jump shot from Proffitt with 1 second to go.

The story flipped in the second half and McNeese State came out strong.

What was a high-octane offense was almost nullified in the second half.

The Sugar Bears shot 35.3 percent in the second half and only added 19 points to their lead.

McNeese beat UCA in the second half, only getting six points to the Cowgirls 16 points in the paint.

The Sugar Bears defense still held strong. While the Cowgirls shot 41.6 percent, they were held to 23 points in the second half.

The Sugar Bears have the No. 21 scoring defense in the country.

The defense has held opponents to 57.6 points a game and held McNeese seven points under their average.

Coach Sandra Rushing said some keys to the game were free throws and rebounding.

“We hit our free throws and rebounded well,” she said. “Those are the things we have to keep doing.”

UCA made 93.3 percent of its free throws and out-rebounded the Cowgirls 38-26.

McNeese beat UCA in points in the paint, though, 26-18.

The Sugar Bears came out with the win 65-50 and improved their record to 13-6, 7-1 SLC.

The second game during the two-game road trip was against the Nicholls State University Colonels (11-9, 6-3 SLC).

The Sugar Bears lead the overall series 11-4.

The first half looked like it would lead to another Sugar Bear win.

They shot 60 percent from the three point line and shot 56.7 percent from the field.

Senior guard Micah Rice had 10 points and three rebounds in the first half. She also dished out two assists.

Rice became the 24th Sugar Bear and fifth since the school’s move to Division I competition to score more than 1,000 points.

She also passed guard Stephanie McNepsey for third in program history with career three-pointers (159) made after she hit a pair from behind the line.

The Colonels shot 41.4 percent from the field and zero percent from three, missing all six attempts in the first half.

The game started with both teams scoring the ball, but the Sugar Bears made their run in the middle of the first half and got up by 17 with 6:40 remaining.

Duever added nine points and five rebounds in the first half, on her way to what would be her fifth straight double-double.

UCA went into halftime with a 15 point lead, 41-26.

The Sugar Bears kept their lead until 8:40 left in the second half when the Colonels went up by two.

UCA just couldn’t run their offense, hitting six of its 21 shots. The team shot 14.3 percent form three making just one of their seven attempts.

Rice said the Sugar Bears became stagnant and lost momentum in the second half.

“We were just too relaxed and they hit a few shots and got all the momentum,” she said. “We got

stagnant on offense and played a lot more defense in the second half. We let those factors take us out of our game.”

On 50 percent shooting from the field and 60 percent from three-point land, the Colonels dropped 43 points on one of the country’s best scoring defenses in UCA.

Nicholls State beat UCA in the paint 36-24, but the Sugar Bears out-rebounded the Colonels 31-29.

The Colonels won the game 69-60.

UCA will be back in action at the Farris Center on Feb. 6, to take on the Southeastern Louisiana University Lions then Feb. 8 to take on the University of New Orleans Privateers.