“Our kids played hard,” UCA coach Checola Seals said. “We played a game and we played together – probably for the first time we played together as a team. We had to overcome some adversity this game, but I applaud our kids for the heart … and how a couple of them got injured in the game and kept fighting. This was the best we’ve played. It was our best game this season. It might not have showed up on the scoreboard, but our kids did not lay down and die, and they actually came out and played with some heart. One thing that everybody from Evansville was saying was ‘I love ya’ll’s team, ya’ll play so hard’, and that’s the one thing you always want to hear.”

The Sugar Bears trailed by just three with 1:41 to play when Allyson Sample hit her fourth 3 of the night, but couldn’t get anything the rest of the way as UE scored, forced UCA into a 5-second count on the ensuing inbounds play, scored again, and got possession right back when Sample stepped across the line before inbounding the ball. Two more free throws sealed the deal for the Purple Aces, who came away feeling quite fortunate to get the win.

“It was a battle and I knew it was going to be,” UE coach Tricia Cullop said. “There’s a reason they’ve been so successful. They’ve got some players that could easily play Division I and be marquee players. They’ve got a fantastic program – they went to the Elite Eight last year and there’s no doubt in my mind they’re going to have a great season this year. That’s not your traditional Division II team. That team has some talent on it and they’re used to winning. I just respect the heck out of their program.”

The big difference was rebounding, as the taller Purple Aces dominated the glass – out-boarding the Sugar Bears 48-30. UE, who went 5-foot-8, 5-10, 5-10, 6-1, and 6-2 in the starting lineup with a 6-6 center coming off the bench, grabbed 25 offensive rebounds (14 in the second half) and had a 19-1 advantage over UCA in second-chance points.

“That was the main thing – we got killed on the glass,” Seals said. “We’re going to work on that. We just didn’t do enough rebounding like we needed to do.”

“I think rebounds and defense were the keys,” Cullop said. “They thing I really harped on before the game, at halftime, and all during the game was our defense. We had to get up and pressure and not allow them to do what they’re so good at doing. We had to have defensive pressure or we weren’t going to win the ballgame. I really didn’t believe we would win the game unless it was from the defensive end.”

UCA committed 27 turnovers and UE had nine steals, but Seals said many of the miscues were the Sugar Bears’ own doing.

“A lot of those weren’t forced, it was just where we had miscommunications and had bad passes,” Seals said. “I would venture to say half those are errors we made on our own. When you have a very young team, you expect a lot of turnovers. If we could’ve eliminated some of those it would’ve been a different story.”

It was a different story from the first 10 minutes of the game to the next, as the Sugar Bears jumped out to a 23-12 lead with 10:20 to go before halftime on back-to-back 3s from Sample, who had 14 points. UCA got just two more field goals the rest of the half, and UE went to the locker room ahead 31-30.

“Ally was a little spark plug for us,” Seals said. “She played hard tonight. She wanted to win and we were trying to set her up. She came in ready to shoot. She was huge for us, and she wants to play and she’s having fun.”

The second half started out back-and-forth, with the Aces building a six-point lead only to see UCA go ahead 45-44 with 12:02 left on a Shannon Oden 3. That would be UCA’s final lead as UE went on an 11-3 run, expanding the lead to 56-48 with 6:22 remaining. Sample hit a pair of free throws with 3:55 to go to pull UCA within three, but UE’s Megan Liffick, who led all scorers with 21, hit a 3 and then scored underneath when Caronica Randle, saddled with four fouls at the time, could just stand and watch.

“We tried to run some different things for her to free her up in the second half,” Cullop said of Liffick. “She’s a competitor and she kept looking for opportunities and she bailed us out a few times as the shot clock was winding down. We’re really happy to have her on our team.”

Cullop was pleased to see Liffick outscore Randle, who went 3-of-9 from the floor and finished with 18 points to lead the Sugar Bears.

“We had to force somebody else to beat us,” Cullop said. “We had to keep Randle in check. She had 18, but she also had 49 against a D-I team in exhibition play – so holding her to 18 is really an accomplishment. She’s averaging 24 a game so we held her under her average and made some other players step up. Our goal was anytimg somebody got a shot, to get a hand in their face.
We didn’t always accomplish that because we were so focused on Randle. I think we made her work for her points tonight.”

Mariesha Piggee had 9 points, 5 steals and 2 rebounds in 28 minutes, Oden had 8 points and 3 boards, Victoria Richards pitched in 3 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out with 2:24 to play, and Brittany Greer had 4 blocks.
But one player who stood out to Seals was junior guard Lauren Williams, who took a nasty blow to the eye from an Evansville player’s knee in a scramble. After several minutes on the ground and a few on the bench regaining her senses, Williams came back and and ended up playing 34 minutes, scoring 7 points, dishing out 4 assists, and getting 3 steals.

“She’s my little warrior,” Seals said. “I applaud her. My heart goes out to her and she gets the game ball for that. When she got kneed, she could’ve laid down … her legs are hurting, she had a lot going on with her body tonight. We went down and asked the trainer if she could go, and Lauren didn’t even wait on the trainer. She answered first and said ‘Yeah, I can play’. She went in and played – with one eye, but she played – and she did everything we asked her to do. I applaud her for stepping up and taking that challenge.”

Williams logged most of the time running the point with Renita Dobbins missing the game after injuring her ankle in practice Tuesday night.

The Sugar Bears will head back to Conway today, break for Christmas, and then head to Phoenix for three games beginning Dec. 28.