CONWAY — Minutes after Central Arkansas’ 70-64 loss to Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday night, first year Coach Sandra Rushing wasn’t afraid to tell reporters and her team how she felt about it.
“Unacceptable,” Rushing said in front of her team in the Sugar Bears’ locker room. “It was a lack of effort. A lack of focus.”
Instead of answering questions in the hallway at the Farris Center, the first-year Sugar Bears coach had reporters stand in front of her team to ask her and her team questions.
Senior forward Megan Herbert - who scored half of her team’s points with 32 - was the first player to answer for UCA’s most disappointing loss this season, which came to a Southeastern Louisiana (9-11, 2-7) team that the Sugar Bears beat 76-60 on Jan. 5 in Hammond, La.
“We didn’t come out. We didn’t play hard,” Herbert said. “We weren’t focused. We took a 1-7 team for granted. We’re not there yet, but we will be.”
Herbert and junior center Courtney Duever (21 points) combined for 53 of UCA’s 64 points and were 21 of 38 from the field. But the rest of the Sugar Bears finished 5 of 23 from the floor and scored only 11 points as UCA (13-7, 6-3) shot 42.6 percent (26 of 61) and made 1 of 10 three pointers.
Duever tied the game at 60-60 with 2:55 remaining. Southeastern Louisiana, though, took a 62-60 lead on Brandi Simmons’ basket. After UCA senior Britney Gowans missed a free throw, Southeastern Louisiana’s Elizabeth Styles scored to make it 64-60 with 1:14 remaining. Senior guard Tracey Parsons pulled UCA within 64-62, but the Lady Lions pushed the lead to 66-62 with two free throws by Styles.
Duever cut the lead to 66-64, but that was it for UCA as Southeastern Louisiana sealed the victory with two free throws from Jameika Hoskins and a layup by Styles.
Simmons and Styles led the Lady Lions with 16 points. Nanna Pool had 12 points and Symone Miller added 10 for Southeastern Louisiana, which shot 46.7 percent (28 of 60) from the floor.
The Lady Lions scored 24 points off 21 UCA turnovers, which helped negate Herbert and Duever’s impact. UCA also allowed 19 second chance points and was outscored 46-38 in the lane.
“You’re not going to win a ballgame like that, are you?” Rushing said.
Rushing took over the Sugar Bears in May after Matt Daniel left to become head coach at Marshall. The Sugar Bears are the defending Southland Conference regular-season champions and won 24 games in 2011-2012. However, Rushing said she doesn’t believe her team has moved on from that season yet.
“The thing is, as a program, we have not accepted fully the change,” Rushing said. “You can’t sometimes accept change and sometimes not.”
UCA hosts Nicholls State on Saturday as it looks to avoid losing three of four during its home stand.
“We’re going to take this loss and learn from it and come back against Nicholls and hopefully turn it around,” Herbert said.
“We need to remember how we feel right now and how crappy this feels,” Duever said.
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
McNeese State 66, S.F. Austin 60
THURSDAY’S GAMES
SE Louisiana 70, Central Arkansas 64 Oral Roberts 84, Nicholls State 56 Lamar 53, Northwestern State 34
TODAY’S GAME All times Central
Sam Houston State at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Stephen F. Austin at Lamar, 12:30 p.m.
Nicholls State at Central Arkansas, 2 p.m.
SE Louisiana at Oral Roberts, 5 p.m.
SUNDAY’S GAME
Northwestern State at McNeese State, 2 p.m.
Sports, Pages 25 on 02/01/2013