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KATY, Texas – Top seed Central Arkansas finished Saturday’s Southland Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament semifinal game in the same manner it began: dominant.
An 11-0 run late in the fourth quarter allowed the Sugar Bears to pull away from a determined fifth-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 62-44 at the Merrell Center, assuring them a berth in their second-straight tournament championship game, where they will face the winners of the Lamar-Stephen F. Austin game played later Saturday.
Sunday’s title game will be televised on CBS Sports Network at noon Central.
“We beat a very good Corpus team,” said Sugar Bears head coach Sandra Rushing, the Southland Coach of the Year. “This team found a way to win. They showed a lot of heart and a lot of passion.”
Both the heart and passion of Central Arkansas (25-4) were on display in the closing four minutes of play. Having seen a 13-point first quarter lead whittled down to 47-43 with 5:07 remaining, the Sugar Bears reached deep down to move within 40 minutes of their second straight tournament championship.
The Sugar Bears held the Islanders (14-18) to just three of 11 from the field in the fourth quarter and kept them without a basket the rest of the game as First Team All-Conference guard Proffitt scored consecutive field goals and grabbed a rebound during the decisive stretch as part of a 21-point, four-rebound afternoon.
“Their defense was just relentless,” said Islanders guard Kassie Jones.
Proffitt also played a factor in containing Islanders’ shooters Jones and Brittany Mbamalu, who were held to just five of 18 from the field. While Jones finished with a team-high 13 points, Mbamalu was only able to take just four shots on the afternoon.
“We knew they came out and played great on Friday,” said Proffitt, who played 38 minutes. “Coach told Taylor Sells and Bhrea Griffin that they were going to be the X-factor. We knew that if we could stop them from scoring, we’d have a pretty good shot at winning.”
Central Arkansas effectively put the game away on a three-point play from Kierra Jordan with 2:02 left, giving them a 56-43 lead. Jordan played an unsung role in the victory, scoring ten points and grabbing six of the Sugar Bears’ 43 rebounds.
“We call her ‘The Beast in the Paint,’ Rushing said of Jordan, a Third Team All-Conference pick. “When she’s in the ballgame, people really have to concentrate on her and double-team, and that opens up the paint.”
Central Arkansas looked every bit in the role of top seed, opening the game hitting six of their first eight shots to bolt out to a 13-0 lead. Taylor Baudoin, who finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds, carried out the initial strike on the Islanders along with Proffitt. The two combined to score the first nine points.
“Hats off to UCA,” said Islanders head coach Royce Chadwick. “They were the aggressor today on both ends of the court. They took it to us. They were aggressive and they smashed us on the boards. They were ready to play.”
Held without a field goal until Booth’s basket with 2:51 left in the first quarter, A&M-Corpus Christi survived their early sluggishness and worked back into the contest.
The Islanders were unable to overcome the double-digit deficit until Jones’ jumper with three seconds left in the first half allowed them to go into the locker trailing only 29-20.
Jones finally began to find her range in the third quarter, opening the stanza with a triple to close the margin to 29-23 before the Sugar Bears were able to stretch their lead back to 38-27 on Proffitt’s jumper at the 4:43 mark.
The Islanders then closed out the quarter with a 9-2 run before Olivia McWilliams’ basket in the closing seconds of the third gave Central Arkansas a 42-36 advantage heading into the final quarter.
Central Arkansas improved their record to 20-1 in road/neutral games against Southland opponents over the past two seasons.