Sugar Bears Basketball Tries to Continue Trend vs. Lamar

Courtesy University of Central Arkansas Athletics Department

BEAUMONT, Texas — Central Arkansas will try to continue its recent trend of success against Lamar as the Sugar Bears go for their fifth straight win over the Lady Cardinals Thursday night at the Montagne Center.

The game, which tips at 5:30, will be broadcast online on ESPN3 as will the Bears-Cardinals men’s game – which follows at 7:30.

The Sugar Bears (14-12, 7-8 Southland) defeated the Lady Cards (18-7, 10-4) 67-62 in overtime earlier this season in the Farris Center, and will try to win in Beaumont for the second season in a row. Last year the Sugar Bears won 62-37 at the Montagne Center, their first victory at Lamar. The Sugar Bears’ last loss at Lamar was a 77-67 loss in 2011. 

After their loss in the Farris Center last month, the Lady Cardinals have won six of their last seven games and are a half game behind Oral Roberts for the top spot in the Southland Conference standings. The Sugar Bears are in sixth place with three games remaining, but could still catch any of the teams in front of them other than ORU.

The Sugar Bears come into the game with the league’s highest-scoring and rebounding duo of senior Megan Herbert and junior Courtney Duever – who combine for 33.2 points and 19.9 rebounds a game for the season and 35.8 points and 20 rebounds per game in Southland games.

Herbert is the leading scorer in Southland games, averaging 20.3 points, while Duever is 8th at 15.5 per game. They are second and third in rebounding with Herbert at 11.5 and Duever 8.5 per game. 

Lamar senior guard Kalis Loyd is third in scoring at 17.9 points per game and fifth in rebounding at 7.5 per game, and is also tied for third in steals at 2.0 per contest. Loyd, who became Lamar’s all-time leading scorer during the first half of her 25-point performance at the Farris Center in January, has 1,854 for her career. 

Herbert, who has 2,229 points and 1,396 rebounds in her career, will be attempting to become just the 10th player in Division I history to reach 2,200 points and 1,400 rebounds. UCA senior Desiree’ Rogers also needs just 13 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career, which would make her the 22nd player in program history to do so.

After Thursday night’s game, the Sugar Bears will travel to Lake Charles, La. to take on two-time defending Southland Conference tournament champion McNeese State before returning home next Saturday, March 9, for the regular season finale against Oral Roberts.