Sugar Bears
Sugar Bears do their part for showdown, downing Austin Peay behind Mafua
UCA continues to prove why it is nearly impossible to get a win in the Farris Center controlling late stages
CONWAY, Ark. – Central Arkansas put together just enough scores and just enough stops to earn a 12th straight win on Saturday, defending home court against Austin Peay and claiming a 77-67 win.
The Sugar Bears (19-6, 13-1 ASUN) continued to prove why it is nearly impossible to get a win in the Farris Center, controlling the late stages of the game to keep a perfect 11-0 record at home.
Of the six Sugar Bears that scored, five of them tallied at least 12 points, led by Leah Mafua’s 18. Bree Stephens matched a career-best with four three-pointers, scoring 12 points, and Elizabeth Abiara was perfect from the field on six attempts, adding 12 of her own to go along with a team-high nine boards.
Austin Peay got the scoring started with a jumper in the paint, but the teams went back and forth throughout the first six minutes of the frame. The teams mirrored scores, tying the game at two, five, eight and ten points.
UCA then put up one of many bursts of scoring, racing out to a 7-0 run on three-straight possessions, taking the score from a tie game to a seven-point lead in 123 seconds.
The Govs answered with back-to-back scores of their own to cut it to three, but an Abiara tip-in with just under a minute pushed the lead back to five for the rest of the quarter.
UCA stayed on the gas pedal, building an 11-point lead over the first two minutes of the second quarter.
Then it was Austin Peay’s turn to right the ship and put together a run, scoring 16 of the next 18 points to take a three-point lead.
Though the Sugar Bears would tie the game just before half, a Governors score as the buzzer sounded sent the home team to the locker room trailing by two.
The Sugar Bears settled down after halftime and went to work. Back-to-back threes from Mafua and Bree Stephens put UCA back on top, and started another big run by the home team.
Over the next six minutes, the Sugar Bears blitzed into the paint, running the pick and roll to perfection time and time again, coming up with easy layups or converting and-ones to build the lead back to double-figures.
The lead continued to hover around 12 through the three-minute mark, but Austin Peay responded with a 7-0 lead to cut the lead to just five points with less than 90 seconds in the third.
Randrea Wright split a pair of free throws with a few seconds left on the clock to add to the lead, sending UCA to the fourth up six.
Austin Peay cut the lead to one point with three of the first four scores of the fourth quarter, and a couple of paint scores later, the Govs were up two. Tied at the five-minute mark, Mafua stepped up in a big way and just took the game over.
With the score even at 64-64, the senior Kiwi brought the ball down the floor and posted up smaller guards on back-to-back possessions, muscling them down into the paint and cashing in on easy layups to get the crowd into the game and the Sugar Bears back on top, four of the nine points she would score in the final five minutes to build the lead back to double-figures.
Mafua scored at least 15 points for the fourth-straight game, and her penchant for making big-time shots continued to shine.
Up next, UCA hosts the ASUN’s reigning champion Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Thursday, February 20th.
The matchup will pit the top-two programs in the ASUN this season against one another, and currently stands as the game that will determine the overall No. 1 seed come ASUN Championship time. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.
