by Josh Goff
Posted Jan. 6, 2006 3:40 p.m.
MEMPHIS — The Sugar Bears picked up
right where they left off.
A year ago the UCA women’s basketball
team ripped off 15 conference wins to a single loss en route to
the GSC regular season title. Thursday night, they kicked off
the 2006 GSC season with a 73-65 victory against the Lady
Buccaneers (7-4, 0-1) on CBU’s home floor.
CBU jumped out to a 7-4 lead early, but the
Sugar Bears (9-3, 1-0) went on a 23-0 run to surge ahead 27-7
and never looked back.
“It just takes a little while for us
to get settled down,” Sugar Bears coach Checola Seals
said. “We adjusted – I wasn’t too
worried about it. We just gave up too many points. These kids
will figure it out. We’re still trying to find ourselves
in the dark, but it’s coming.”
The Sugar Bears were down three when
freshman Mariesha Piggee got things rolling with a 3 to tie the
game at 7. Shannon Oden canned a long two-pointer, Caronica
Randle scored five straight, and then Allyson Sample hit a pair
of 3s around a Victoria Richards 3, and the rout was on. Renita
Dobbins, fresh into the game, made a steal and a layup and
Randle hit two more free throws to put the Sugar Bears ahead
27-7 with 8:19 to go in the half.
CBU’s Erin Nigh finally broke the
drought with a bucket at the 8:00 mark, and Mary Shea Hackett
hit a jumper on the Lady Bucs’ next trip, but the damage
had already been done.
“We were able to get some good
shots,” Seals said. “Ally’s awesome. She gave
us a lift and hit some key 3s for us. And we turned that
defense up in the first half. Piggee did a great job with her
on-ball defense.”
The Sugar Bears forced the Lady Bucs into
several bad shots, leading CBU to shoot 9-for-29 from the field
and 3-for-13 on 3s in the first half. Conversely, UCA shot 78
percent from beyond the arc in the first half, hitting 7-of-9,
including one at the buzzer by junior guard Lauren Williams.
“We just came out wanting it,”
said Randle, who led all scorers with 23. “Everybody out
there for us can score. I think everybody hit [a 3]. It lets
their post players know they have to guard our posts like
guards and our guards like posts.”
Senior center Victoria Richards, who scored
12 points, hit her one 3-point attempt and Oden drained a long
two where her toe was on the line, although she missed her one
3-point shot.
UCA got 15 points off the bench from
Sample, who was 4-of-6 on 3s, while 6-foot freshman Brittany
Greer added 5 rebounds and 5 steals.
The Sugar Bears also got a big boost from
the resurgent play of Dobbins, who had been shelved with an
ankle injury suffered in practice before the game at
Evansville. Dobbins threw up 9 points and 6 assists in 21
minutes, and quickly quelled CBU’s hopes of applying an
effective press.
“Renita had a good night,”
Seals said. “We tried to get her back in from the ankle
injury and get her situated and back into a feel for the game.
Lauren [Williams] turned her ankle a little yesterday so
we’re trying to keep her healthy.”
With a game tomorrow and another on Monday,
Seals said keeping people fresh and healthy as possible is of
utmost importance during this stretch.
“It’s a huge concern,”
she said. “That’s why we tried to pull our starters
and go with that second bunch. We’ve just got to get that
second bunch to understand we can’t have letdowns.”
With the reserves taking most of the
minutes, the Sugar
Bears got just four field goals in the
game’s last 10 minutes and CBU scored 11 of the
game’s final 13 points to make the final margin a
more-respectable eight.
The Sugar Bears will play their first home
game of the season tomorrow, although last night’s game
almost seemed like one.
“For these kids it was almost like
being at home,” Seals said. “You look into the
stands and we’ve got so many fans here, it gave the kids
an extra step.”
A large portion of the UCA congregation
consisted of relatives of Randle, who is from nearby Forrest
City.
“It’s good to be back home so
our fans can come out,” she
said. “My whole family was here.
I’ve got one side over there, that’s all
family.”
Tomorrow, with OBU coming to Conway, UCA
finally gets the real home game – which is even
better.
“We’re ready to get back home
and we’re glad OBU is our first opponent,” Seals
said. “It’s personal. We got something for them
… it’s personal.”
