29 Nov 2023 Offensive explosion powers Sugar Bears to win over Denver
DENVER, Colo. – The Central Arkansas women’s basketball team went out West for the first time this season, and engaged in a good, old-fashioned shootout last Friday. Winning 90-84, the Sugar Bears shot the lights out for 40 minutes, posting season-highs in points, three-pointers and free throws.
The Sugar Bears improved to 3-2 on the year after getting four players to score 15 or more points. Kinley Fisher led the way with a career-high 21 points, including 11 at the charity stripe. Leah Mafua scored a personal-best 19, Jade Upshaw shot a perfect 5-for-5 from three to score 18, and Randrea Wright added 16 of her own. Bree Stephens was all over the glass, corralling 16 rebounds, the most by a Sugar Bear this season.Despite the high scoring affair by Central Arkansas, it was the Pioneers who came out on fire, with four of their first five baskets coming from distance. Denver ripped out of the gates for a 20-10 lead by the midway point of the first quarter, and the Sugar Bears seemed out of sorts in the altitude. But Central Arkansas locked back in and put together a 9-5 run to close the quarter to cut the lead to six after ten minutes. Randrea Wright scored six points on 3-of-3 shooting, but the Pioneers hitting six threes in the first quarter was a tough act to follow.
Back-to-back three-pointers from the Sugar Bears tied the game just after the start of the second quarter. The triples were part of a 11-3 run to open the frame that gave Central Arkansas a two-point lead with just under five minutes to go. Following the media timeout, the Pioneers reclaimed the lead briefly, but a 5-0 run at the end of the half secured a three-point lead for Central Arkansas at the break.
Upshaw hit all four of her three-point attempts in the second, nearly outscoring Denver by herself. Central Arkansas shot 6-of-7 from distance, adding four free throws for a 22-point second quarter. Upshaw had 15 points at the break, leading all scorers.
The lead bounced back and forth for the first several minutes of the third quarter, but Central Arkansas was slowly starting to claim momentum as time ticked on. And finally, the floodgates opened, as the Sugar Bears scored 19 of the next 26 points to pull ahead by 15 points by the end of the quarter. Central Arkansas shot 11-of-16 from the field, good for 69 percent, while holding the Pioneers to just 33 percent. Six Sugar Bears scored in the frame.
Action ground to a halt in the fourth quarter, opening with the Sugar Bears leading 66-51. A three-pointer by Leah Mafua brought the lead to its biggest of the day at 19 points, but Denver started chipping away, mostly at the free throw line. Before long, the lead was back to single digits, and the Sugar Bears led by just nine with two and a half minutes to go. But free throws in response by five different Sugar Bears were able to keep the Pioneers at bay. Fisher was the driving force in the final stanza, scoring ten points at the foul line to hold on for the win.
Central Arkansas scored its most points in a single game since 2019, and reached the 90-point mark against a Division I opponent since January of 2011. The Sugar Bears also hit ten three-pointers again tonight, marking back-to-back efforts from beyond the arc. It is the first time since 2011 that the Sugar Bears have connected on double-digit three-pointers in consecutive games.
