CONWAY, Ark. - The UWG women's basketball team went toe-to-toe with one of the Atlantic Sun's top team on Saturday, but in the end came up short of a big, road upset, falling 72-62 to the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears at the Farris Center.
It was a valiant effort for West Georgia (11-16, 5-11 ASUN), who trailed the second-best team in the ASUN standings, Central Arkansas (20-7, 14-2 ASUN) by just four with 1:30 to go before a dagger three-pointer by the Sugar Bears. UCA, who is 26-2 on their home floor in the past two seasons, was able to then pull away at the free throw line.
The Wolves, who went cold in the final quarter, still did enough to hang in the game, and were led by Grace O'Gara with 15 points while Destiny Jones recorded her eighth career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
UWG was 3-of-17 from the field in the final quarter, and were outscored 20-14, yet still nearly pulled off the upset victory on the road.
Both offenses had great opening halves of basketball, but it was UCA who had the advantage at the midway point.
In quarter one, it was back-and-forth with four lead changes. The Sugar Bears had the advantage in shooting, hitting nearly 60 percent of their field goal attempts including four three-pointers as Central Arkansas led 22-17 after 10 minutes.
The Sugar Bears stayed relatively hot in the second quarter, and UWG heated up, shooting 6-of-12 from the field and pouring in another pair of three-pointers. Tolbert, who led UWG in scoring on Thursday night, picked up right where she left off, shooting 3-of-4 from the field and 2-of-2 from beyond the arc to lead West Georgia with eight first half points.
It was Grace O'Gara, however, made a big play in the closing seconds, getting a steal and drawing a foul on the other end to send her to the line with 0.7 seconds remaining, and making it a one-point, 37-36 UWG deficit at the halftime break.
The second half featured a more defensive effort as UCA managed 15 points in the third quarter while UWG scored 12. The wolves had the deficit to one early in the third on an O'Gara three-pointer, and it was another O'Gara three-pointer at the end of the period that sent the game to the final quarter with UCA clinging to a four-point advantage.
Central Arkansas then scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to stretch their lead to eight, before Mykah Anderson hit a three, followed by an old-fashioned three-point play by K'Nari Holliday made it a two-point deficit for the Wolves.
It was back-and-forth for a few minutes from that point until Jones converted two at the stripe to make it a 59-58 deficit for the Wolves with five minutes to play, but that's as close as it would get over the remainder of the game.
The dagger came at the 1:28 mark as a three-pointer made a four-point game a seven-point game, sinking the Wolves chances at an upset and clinching a spot in the ASUN Tournament.
Four Wolves finished in double-figures, with Holliday and Tolbert scoring 11 to go with the aforementioned points from O'Gara and Jones. Alongside the 10 rebounds from Jones, Holliday pulled down seven to give UWG a 41-28 advantage on the glass.
West Georgia will next play on Thursday, February 27 as they head to Clarksville, Tennessee for a showdown with Austin Peay. The clinching scenario remains the same as UWG needs a win over APSU or a Queens loss to lock down their first postseason berth as a Division I program. UWG defeated Austin Peay at home earlier this season.
