Sugar Bears take 10th in row at home; down Bellarmine

Jade Upshaw (Ted McClenning / allBEARS+)

CONWAY, Ark. — Nobody’s going to get tired of Central Arkansas piling up wins at the Farris Center. Playing Bellarmine for the second time this season, the Sugar Bears repeated the result from the first game, downing the Knights with a 63-57 win. It was the 10th home win of the season for UCA, reaching double-figure wins at home for the first time since 2018.

The Sugar Bears improved to 17-8 on the year and 9-3 in the ASUN with the win. Kinley Fisher led the team with 13 points, and Randrea Wright added ten. Bree Stephens had a big defensive night, coming away with five steals and two blocks.

Kinley Fisher (Ted McClenning / allBEARS+)

The Sugar Bears jumped out to a quick lead, scoring on the first possession of the game and building a six-point lead by the six-minute mark. But Bellarmine would whittle the lead down quickly, tying the game a couple of minutes later.

UCA never let go of the lead, keeping the Knights on their heels. The teams traded buckets over the last couple of minutes of the frame, ending the first up two.

Bellarmine responded in the first couple of possessions of the second quarter, taking its first lead of the night with back-to-back scores. From there, the teams traded baskets for most of the second frame, with neither team building even a two-possession lead until the 2:30 mark, when Fisher added a free throw to a Jade Upshaw three-pointer for a four-point lead.

The Knights scored the final basket of the second with just over a minute to play, trimming the lead back to two points. Upshaw had a team-high seven points at the break, but the Sugar Bears were shooting just 28 percent at halftime. Luckily, the defense was keeping Central Arkansas alive, forcing nine turnovers from the Knights and turning them into 12 points.

Jenna Rose Mufua (Ted McClenning / allBEARS+)

UCA opened the second half with a 6-0 run, breaking the lead open to eight points. Third quarters have been especially kind to the Sugar Bears, who have outscored opponents by 69 points in the third quarter of games this season.

With a little breathing room, UCA pounced. The defense forced the Knights into tough shots and grew the lead to double-figures for the first time at 4:32 on a three-pointer from Wright. Bellarmine tried to get the lead back to single-figures, but the Sugar Bears’ defense held the Knights to 21 percent shooting in the third, stretching the lead to 12 by the buzzer. Stephens did damage in the frame, scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting, and was a +10 in the third.

But much like the run at the beginning of the third, the Knights mounted a run to start the fourth, scoring the first seven points of the quarter to cut the lead to just five points. Fisher would stem the tide with a big three-pointer at the 6:45 mark, halting the run and kicking the Sugar Bears back into gear.

Destine Duckworth (Ted McClenning / allBEARS+)

Over the next several minutes, the lead would touch ten three times in the middle of the quarter. But the Knights wouldn’t back down, fighting the lead back to four points with just under a minute left. Central Arkansas hit four free throws down the stretch, two from Upshaw and two from Leah Mafua, to close out the game.

The Sugar Bears have one more game at home this weekend, playing Eastern Kentucky on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Colonels were the first team to defeat UCA in ASUN play, winning the first matchup of the season in Richmond, Ky.