The UCA women’s basketball team maintained its undefeated at-home record after beating the Queens University of Charlotte Royals 76-57 in their Jan. 24 matchup.

Though coach Tony Kemper said the Sugar Bears (14-6, ASUN 6-1) did “really good at times” throughout the game, he still picked up on some things the team could work on — mainly, the team’s fourth-quarter performance.

“Tonight’s the first night that I didn’t try to control the fourth quarter,” he said. “I’ve been slowing them down in the fourth quarter because I feel like I need to control the game, and I want to be able to let them go.

“We’ve got to grow a little bit on how, when you’ve worked your tail off to build the lead that you’ve had, how you play it down … There’s an art to it,” he said.

Kemper said, “We’ve got to feel that a little bit — the feel of the game: OK, well, it’s going back the other way. They’ve got two baskets in a row. Our 20 is down to 16 with a little momentum.”

“We can still push the ball to get a layup, great. If not, let’s make them work,” he said. “We need to learn aggressive and solid in the same breath.”

Once the Sugar Bears earned back the lead from the Royals (6-14, ASUN 0-7) in the first quarter, the Sugar Bears’ defense worked hard to maintain the team’s lead, only allowing the Royals 10 points from turnovers, compared with UCA’s 20.

The Sugar Bears were more active on the court in terms of 3-point shots, making 23 attempts — six successful, compared with the Royals’ six attempts with only one making it to the net.

Kemper said, “I thought we played at times with a really good pace, so how fast we were playing, I thought was really good.”

“We attacked the rim really well throughout the game,” he said.

“We shot some early threes … but what you can’t do is go early three, miss. Early three, miss. Early three, miss on three straight possessions, right? So you gotta learn that,” he said.

“We’ve got really good shooters. I want to see the stats reflect that every time,” he said. “I tell them this all the time: You gotta make it. If you make it, it’s great, and I’m not gonna say anything.”

The Sugar Bears ended the night with a 41.3% field goal percentage, making 26 of 63 attempts.

Coach Tony Kemper praised freshman forward Elizabeth Abiara’s performance and said she “made some baskets when we needed them.”

“Liz is very athletic. She’s played really well in a lot of moments this year, and you can just kind of see her game build,” Kemper said.

“We did something totally different with ball streams with her tonight. We edged a little bit. We were more aggressive in our coverage. She nailed it,” he said.

“That’s the first time in many games that we’ve mixed up our coverage, and I think it was good because it can kind of keep them off balance at times,” Kemper said.

Abiara said her team keeps her confidence up.

“As a freshman, I’m gonna want to get in my own head and say, ‘Oh, that was bad.’ But they’re gonna be like, ‘Good play, good play. You’ll get the next one,’” she said.

Abiara helped her team maintain possession with five offensive rebounds and got the ball back in the Sugar Bears’ hands with three defensive rebounds.

“You just gotta go after it and track the ball,” she said.

“I think it’s really important to take every opponent seriously. Especially, even if you get a win, you still need to focus on the next game and focus on the next team,” she said.

Abiara said regardless of the result, the team always looks to the “next game because we’re still trying to battle for the conference.”

Kemper said junior guard Randrea Wright, who chipped in 16 total points that game, played well in the second half.

Wright immediately took control of the court in the third quarter, scoring a layup within the first few seconds before returning the ball to the net twice more just minutes later with 3-pointers.

“She stuck two big threes on a night we didn’t shoot them great,” Kemper said.

Kemper said despite nearly all his players being new to UCA, “they did a good job from the word ‘go’ here of being a team and playing together, and they’ve really grown throughout the year.

“I think we’re playing pretty darn well right now in conference play,” he said.

The Sugar Bears’ next game will be against the Jacksonville Dolphins at 5 p.m. Feb. 1 at the Farris Center.