Feb 19th, 2007 06:11AM
by:

UCA SID OFFICE

LAKE CHARLES, La. — The University of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears completed their first season sweep of a Southland Conference opponent, putting away the McNeese State Cowgirls 66-56 at Burton Coliseum.

The Sugar Bears (11-14, 5-8 SLC) defeated the Cowgirls (2-23, 0-12) 85-73 in the Farris Center on Jan. 20, and handed the struggling McNeese program its 19th consecutive loss Saturday afternoon on the strength of 26 points and a career-high six assists from senior forward Caronica Randle, who moved into third on the school’s career scoring list.

“Our kids had a great game,” UCA coach Checola Seals-Horton said. “We shot 42 percent in the second half, kept our turnovers down, the assists were even and we outrebounded them. Overall we did a good job and had a good team effort. We’ll take a victory any way we can get it.”

The Cowgirls, who haven’t won since a Nov. 30 victory over Belhaven College, hung around for much of the game, taking the lead 47-46 with 7:23 to play on a free throw by Reeshimah Davis.

“We let them hang around and finally our kids got frustrated,” Seals-Horton said. “We hit a couple jumpers, hit a couple more and then it seemed like everything was going in. The kids stepped up. They wanted this win, and did what they needed to do to get it.”

UCA regained the lead on a pair of Meaghen Kelleybrew free throws, and after a Cowgirl turnover, Randle hit one of her five 3s on the day to push UCA ahead four, 51-47, with 6:56 to play.

McNeese cut the lead to 58-56 with 2:58 remaining, when Shante’ Perry scored inside. From that point, the Sugar Bears ran out on an 8-0 run to finish the ballgame, getting a jumper by Renita Dobbins, another from Shannon Oden, a layup by Sharece Love and finally a pair of free throws from Dobbins — who scored 14 points, moving her within five of 1,000 for her career.

With the win, the Sugar Bears stay in contention for second place in the SLC East as they came into the day trailing Lamar (5-6 coming into the day) and Northwestern State (5-7), who squared off against one another later in the night.

The Sugar Bears return to Conway for their final homestand of the season when they take on SLC-East leading Southeastern Louisiana at 6 p.m.