Foul-shot talk prevalent at Bearbacker luncheon
The free-throw gap was enormous in McNeese State’s 87-76 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Sunday — 40 attempts by the Cowboys and eight by the Bears.
“It seem like they shot eight free throws before they finished the National Anthem,” quipped UCA assistant head coach Clarence Finley, who substituted for head coach Corliss Williamson at Monday’s Bearbacker luncheon at Beef O’Brady’s.
He attributed a lot of the issue to the Cowboys’ style compared with the Bears’ style.
“They (the referees) were calling it tight; we try to stress adapting to the officiating,” Finley said. “They (the Cowboys) were more aggressive going to the basket and that may have been one of the reasons they got the calls.”
He said the Bears rallied in the second half with a pressing man defense, then didn’t growl when they switched to their “bear’ defense or matchup zone.
“We got passive in our zone and they 3-point shooters got in sync,” he said. “They made a couple of 3s before we could get back to man.”
Finley said another factor was Mark Rutledge was on the bench with foul fouls in the second half. Rutledge had helped hold Patrick Richard, the Southland Conference’s leading scorer, to four points the first half. Richard scored 15 the second half, nine at the foul line.
“When things got close, Richard went to work and that’s what the leading player is the conference is supposed to do,” Finley said.
The UCA men have two home games this week, Northwestern State on Wednesday and West Division leading UT Arlington Saturday afternoon.
“We’re so close but so far away,” Finley said. “We are capable of beating anyone in the Southland Conference and anyone in the Southland Conference can beat us. We’re making way to many mistakes to win those games we need to win.”
SUGAR BEARS
The 6-1 Sugar Bears moved into a first-place tie with McNeese State with a 71-70 double-overtime victory over McNeese State in one of the most intense women’s basketball games in the Farris Center in history.
The other four defeats by the defending SLC champion Cowgirls (16-5) were to defending national champion Texas A&M (72-62), current No. 1 Baylor (90-50), LSU (64-53) and UCLA (67-59 in the preseason WNIT).
Daniel noted the long-range shooting efforts of McNeese’s Ashlyn and Caitlyn Baggett and Candace LaCombe.
“Each time one of our players has a birthday during the season, we pick a spot on the court and every player shoots a long one from that spot and if somebody makes it, we call off practice that day; they (the Cowgirls) were shooting ‘birthday shots’ on regular attempts,” Daniel said.
Nursing a three-point lead in the final seconds, UCA’s Micah Rice fouled Ashlyn Baggett in the backcourt for two shots with 1.8 seconds left. The sharpshooting guard made the first shot, then intentionally tried to miss the second shot so one of her teammates would have a chance for a putback to send the game into a third overtime. She made the shot to give the Sugar Bears the one-point victory.
“That tells you what kind of shooter she is — that she makes it when she is trying to miss,” Daniel said. “Normally, I don’t like to foul like that at the end of the game. But I told Micah that if you can get to them (the McNeese guards), to foul them and let’s get out of here.”
Matt Daniel is now primarily focused on two road games this week — at Northwestern State (a team the Sugar Bears handled easily recently in Conway) and UT Arlington.
“When we played them last, Northwestern State was pretty banged up and only was seven-deep, “ Daniel said. “I expect it to be quite a different ballgame this time. We’re playing UTA in the second game in their new facility. Both teams are dangerous, as is everyone in our league. You can’t take a night off.”
