Mar 4th, 2007 05:51AM
by:

By JOSH GOFF
UCA SPORTS INFORMATION

NATCHITOCHES, La. — The University of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears ended their first NCAA  Division I season in strong fashion Saturday, securing a .500 season and second place in the Southland Conference East Division while preserving a 27-year streak without a losing season.

They did it with a74-60 win over Northwestern State at Prather Coliseum.

“What a great bunch of young ladies,” UCA coach Checola Seals-Horton said. “They worked so hard and showed everybody that we can do this. They took us out of Division II and into Division I and we were able to finish .500. And to finish second in the league on our side, man, they’re some incredible kids.”

The Sugar Bears (14-14, 8-8) knocked off the Lady Demons (10-19, 6-10) in the final game for seniors Renita Dobbins, Shannon Oden and Caronica Randle. The trio combined for 39 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists. Randle, the Southland Conference’s leading scorer, had a team-high 20 to finish her career with 99 games in double figures.

“Caronica said something interesting during the game,” Seals-Horton said. “She said ‘This is our senior night, too.’ Not having postseason play is difficult for us to comprehend since we’ve always been in the playoffs. To know it’s your last year and you don’t have anything else to shoot for, it’s nice to go out with a win and finish .500. There are a lot of Division I teams that can’t say that.”

Randle, who also hit seven free throws in the game to overtake Carone Harris for the school’s career record (597), fouled out in the final seconds, though UCA had the game in hand.

“I told coach it’s my senior night, also,” she said. “It was all right – we had the lead.”

The Sugar Bears took that lead with 7:44 to go in the first half, when Oden knocked home a jumper to put UCA up 18-17, and didn’t relinquish it the rest of the game.

“I’m so proud of these girls,” Oden said. “We said we were gonna get .500 come hell or high water. I’m so proud of these girls, we just played so well tonight.”

NSU’s Chassidy Jones, the Lady Demons’ lone senior, did her best to keep her team in the game, scoring 16 points and grabbing nine rebounds en route to a game-high 31 points and 12 boards, but the rest of the team managed only 29 points on 12-of-46 shooting (26 percent).

The Sugar Bears fell behind early, as NSU ran out to a 9-3 lead due in part to UCA’s turnover problems. Mariesha Piggee, who finished with 16 points, scored the Sugar Bears’ next seven to get UCA rolling.

“Coming out we were trying to get Caronica involved in the game quick,” said Dobbins, who dished out seven assists and finishes with the sixth-highest single-season assist total (157) in school history. “The girl guarding her kept overplaying her, and that’s why we kept getting those turnovers. Then Mariesha hit three buckets, so we just had to keep spreading it out and have other people besides Caronica score.”

After leading 31-27 at halftime, the Sugar Bears scored the first five points of the second half to grab the momentum. Then, they got the lead to double digits at 47-36 with 12:03 to play on a pair of free throws by Randle.

NSU cut it to five with 6:12 to play, but a pair of 3-pointers by Piggee and Allyson Sample pushed that lead back to 11. The lead grew to 13 when Oden made a pair of free throws with 3:46 left to make the score 63-50. She hit two more with 12 seconds left to give the Sugar Bears their largest lead of the game at 15 before NSU’s Natasha Isom made one with four seconds to play to set the final of 74-60.

“These seniors left everything on the floor,” Seals-Horton said. “We told them to leave everything out there because you don’t have anything to take with you. When we’re at our postgame meal, I want you to be sitting there tired, and I think they will be. We had some early turnovers and didn’t do a good job of taking care of the basketball, but they didn’t quit.”

Oden, who had nine points, seven rebounds and her team’s final points in seniors’ four-year run as Sugar Bears.

“Thanks for these seniors,” she said. “They’re my best friends. I love them all.”