Instead of a simple inbounds play, the Golden Suns opted to throw the ball down the baseline and then go for the long pass, but the lazy lob pass came up short of its intended target, and right into the hands of Dobbins, who took advantage of a slow clock and dribbled in and found Caronica Randle wide open on the block. Randle hauled in the pass, gathered herself, and flipped the shot up and in right as the buzzer sounded.
“That was just freelancing,” said Dobbins, who had 8 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 point on the night. “I just got the steal and knew we had to score. I saw Caronica open and I knew she could make it, cuz I hadn’t made a shot all night. It seemed like it was about 10 seconds – I don’t think they started the clock on time.”
The decisive steal and assist made the second time in three days that Dobbins, who celebrated her 21st birthday Saturday by finishing off OBU, had played the role of hero.
She had the chance to do it sooner, going to the line for a pair with the Sugar Bears trailing by two with 3.6 remaining, but missed the first.
“She did,” UCA coach Checola Seals said of Dobbins’ again displaying her knack for coming up with the big play. “Renita did a good job. I knew she was frustrated when she missed that free throw, but I’ll still take her at the free throw line anytime. They wind up running that switch-a-roo play on us, and we told them to not get beat backdoor. That girl threw it long and underthrew it, Renita went up and got it. My heart … I don’t know where my heart went – I must be living right. Renita dribbles in, sees her girl on the block and saw Caronica open. She gave a great pass to Caronica – that was a long 3.6 seconds. I think they might’ve held the clock on that.”
The Sugar Bears found themselves down 10 with 5:40 to play after ATU’s Christy Mahan, the game’s leading scorer with 24, hit her sixth 3 of the night to push Tech’s lead to 56-46.
But UCA, used to playing in big games, would not be deterred.
“We were down 10 with like three minutes left and I was like ‘look, we can come back. Just keep your head up.’,” Randle said. “With this team this year, everybody can score so we climbed back even when I was out. The people that were in there got the game back. I knew they could do it.”
The Sugar Bears rallied from that point, scoring the next six points on two Randle free throws and back-to-back buckets by Lauren Williams. The lead was sliced to two when Williams forced a Tech turnover and freshman Mariesha Piggee scored two of her career-high 10 points on a layup to make the score 56-54 with 3:11 remaining.
After two more free throws by ATU, Dobbins began dishing out assists – one to Piggee and then two more to Williams to tie the game at 60.
“I was thinking ‘We gotta get up’, that’s it,” Dobbins said. “We weren’t thinking about anything else. We were supposed to be running plays, but we were just kinda playing streetball, trying to drive because they were in the bonus so we were trying to drive in and draw fouls.”
That slashing philosophy proved fruitful for UCA, as Tech couldn’t come up with the necessary adjustments to stop Dobbins from getting inside and creating near the basket.
“The kind of defense they were playing, they weren’t playing the drive, they were just playing the shot,” Dobbins said.
Williams, who was the beneficiary of Dobbins’ drives, finished the game with a UCA career high-tying 14 points and enjoyed every minute of it.
“That was exciting, it was fun,” she said. “We just kept saying we were going to stay with it and keep fighting back. We just had to chip away a little bit at a time. Once we got it back to four we had the momentum. Renita sees everything. You get to the right spot and she’ll get you the ball.”
Williams’ clutch performance during the game’s critical juncture came as no real surprise to Seals.
“Lauren is like a silent killer,” she said. “You really don’t realize what she has until you look at the stats. You know she’s doing her job, she’s making her shots and layups, but she’s not doing anything spectacular and that’s the thing we liked about her coming out of JUCO.”
The win is UCA’s sixth straight over ATU, including the fourth in a row at Tucker Coliseum. With only Tech’s trip to Conway left in the series, it was a magnificent way for UCA to say farewell to Russellville.
“I am so excited this is the last time I will have to play inside Tucker Coliseum,” Seals said. “I really want to go to halfcourt and kiss it, but I’m not going to do that. And, I’m happy this series is almost over. I’m glad it’s over. It’s been a great series and you hate to see this rivalry end but you’re glad to see it end because you’re ready to start some new rivalries.”
