CONWAY, Arkansas – ACU freshman
Madi Miller hit a layup with 2.6 seconds left to play Saturday and Central Arkansas missed a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer as the Wildcats walked out of the Farris Center still tied for third place in the Southland Conference with a 67-65 win over the Sugar Bears.
ACU's fifth straight win pushes the Wildcats to 19-8 overall and 12-4 in the league, while the Sugar Bears fall to 11-5 and 6-10. ACU is tied for third in the league with Nicholls, two games behind second-place Stephen F. Austin and three games behind first-place Lamar.
Lamar beat SFA, 62-46, Saturday afternoon to move another step closer to clinching the regular-season championship. ACU plays at SFA at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, while Nicholls is at Northwestern State. ACU will close the regular season at home next Saturday (March 9) against Incarnate Word.
The Wildcats had to overcome a brutal travel day on Friday that saw their flight changed without warning and then three different buses to get them to Conway where they arrived around 7:45 p.m. for practice at the Farris Center. Then Saturday's game started with an administrative technical foul on ACU, which didn't get its starting lineup entered into the scorebook in time and the Sugar Bears started off with a 1-0 lead after Antonija Bozic hit the second of two free throws before the game got underway.
"We showed a lot of resiliency (Saturday)," ACU head coach
Julie Goodenough said. "We had a brutal travel day and then we had the error before the game started. But we were able to fight through everything. Anytime you can come up here and get a win it's big."
The game was a see-saw battle throughout with UCA never leading by more than four points and ACU never holding more than a seven-point lead. UCA, in fact, led 65-62 with 3:38 to play after a layup by Alanie Fisher. But the Sugar Bears wouldn't score again as they went 0 for 6 from the floor in the final 3:05, including 0 for 4 from 3-point range by Bozic, who buried three straight 3-pointers to give her team a 61-59 lead with 6:11 left in the game.
Trailing 65-62 the Wildcats bot a jumper from
Makayla Mabry to cut the Sugar Bears' lead to 65-64 with 2:47 left in the game. With 1:23 left in the contest,
Dominique Golightly — who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for her seventh career double-double — hit 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at 65 apiece.
After Bozic missed a go-ahead 3-point attempt with 27 seconds left,
Sara Williamson grabbed the defensive rebound and pushed the ball up the floor before passing it off to
Breanna Wright. With 2.6 seconds left, Wright found Miller under the basket for a layup and the Wildcats led, 67-65. UCA called a timeout to advance the ball into the front court for a sideline out of bounds play.
The Sugar Bears got the ball to star guard Kamry Orr for a game-winning 3-point attempt, but it was short and right and the Wildcats had a huge win that kept them in line for at least a first-round bye at the southland Conference Postseason Tournament in Katy.
"That was a great Southland Conference game," Goodenough said. "They (UCA) gave guys everything they had, and we knew they would because they're fighting for a spot in Katy. We weren't very good defensively in the first half, but we did a better job in the second half closing out on shooters."
Lexie Ducat had a big game with 15 points and six rebounds, while Williamson added nine points, five rebounds and five assists, while Wright had eight points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals in 40 minutes.
