HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Megan Herbert became Central Arkansas’ career rebound ing leader, but the Sugar Bears committed a season-high 30 turnovers in a 53-44 loss at Southern Mississippi on Saturday at Reed Green Coliseum.
The Sugar Bears (6-4), playing without senior guard Micah Rice for most of the game after she reinjured the knee she hurt at Arkansas State on Dec. 8, had more turnovers (17) than points (16) in the second half as Southern Miss (6-5) pulled away.
Herbert finished with 13 points and 16 rebounds.
“All teams hit adversity, and when Micah went down it happened,” UCA Coach Sandra Rushing said. “It breaks my heart, I teared up, and we’re not sure where she is right now. But we’ve got to be able to fight through that and figure it out. I don’t even have words to say for this performance. We had way too many turnovers. I’m disappointed in our defense and our focus. We’ve got to take care of the turnovers. To have 30 turnovers, absolutely at this level there shouldn’t be that many turnovers.”
Herbert broke the rebounding record held by Carol Jones since 1986 at the 2:17 mark with the last of her seven offensive rebounds, giving her 1,217 rebounds in her career at UCA. She is fifth on the school’s career scoring list with 1,905 points.
“Megan played with heart and passion, and she’s looking for somebody else to step up with her,” Rushing said. “I don’t think Des [Desiree’ Rogers] played a great basketball game, but she has been pulling a load for us the last couple games. But we were definitely out of sync. We can’t be where we want to play hard sometimes and sometimes not.
“When you put that uniform on, you’ve got to play with passion and desire. We’ve got a lack of focus, we’re not understanding, and we’re coming down jacking up shots we shouldn’t. We’ve got to play smarter basketball.”
Rogers had 10 rebounds for UCA, her fourth consecutive game with at least 10 rebounds, as the Sugar Bears outrebounded the Lady Eagles 47-29. The rebounding advantage was not enough to offset the 30-15 turnover margin, with the Lady Eagles scoring 32 points off Sugar Bears miscues.
The Sugar Bears made just five field goals in the second half, shooting 21.7 percent. They were 2 of 16 (12.5 percent) from three-point range.
Sports, Pages 33 on 12/23/2012