CONWAY -- For the 14th and final time this season, University of Central Arkansas fans walked out of the Farris Center with smiles on their faces.
Tuesday night, like the 13 games that came before it, they left to the sights and sounds of a win as the UCA women's basketball team defeated Eastern Kentucky 68-57 in the semifinals of the ASUN Tournament.
The Sugar Bears play Florida Gulf Coast at 6 p.m. Central on Saturday in Fort Meyers, Fla., for the ASUN Tournament championship with a berth in the NCAA Tournament at stake.
Like many of those 14 wins, UCA (21-10) came out firing with a 20-9 first quarter. Jade Upshaw and Leah Mafua each scored seven points in the quarter.
After a strong second quarter from Eastern Kentucky (22-11) that made it 35-27 at halftime, UCA extended its lead early in the third quarter thanks to a 7-3 run.
Eastern Kentucky was the first team in conference play to defeat UCA. Late in the third quarter, the Colonels showed exactly why.
They closed the quarter on an 8-0 run and scored the first two baskets of the fourth to cut the lead to two points.
"I knew they were going to score," UCA Coach Tony Kemper said. "I knew they were going to counter-punch. So having the lead that we had right out of the gate really mattered because they cut it to two multiple times there late. And so I think the start was really good just to set the tone for us, steady us."
After that run, Kemper called a timeout to refocus and re-organize a team that just saw its 14-point lead evaporate.
On the next play, he ran a play that saw Cheyenne Kemp hit a cutting Kinley Fisher out of the post for a layup to push it to 50-46.
In the fourth quarter, Fisher led all scorers with 10 points. The ASUN Sixth Woman of the Year led the Sugar Bears with 17 points total off the bench, a unit that outscored the Colonels' 21-4.
"My goal is to go in and not force any shots that I shouldn't be taking," Fisher said. "Quality over quantity, as I like to say, but I think I wanted to get one and just take the right shot in the right moment and not try to be a hero. And luckily like he set up a play for me to get me a bucket. And so that kind of got me rolling."
UCA did not trail and led for the final 39:37 despite multiple runs by Eastern Kentucky to close large gaps.
With the win, the Sugar Bears also secured Kemper his 100th as a head coach.
With one game to go against the dominant program in the ASUN, Florida Gulf Coast, UCA played what was potentially its final game in the Farris Center this season in front of a season-high attendance 1,845.
"I hate to say that we deserved it, but we've been working all year to win and to get a crowd," Fisher said. "And so to get this game, another home game after we just had the one on Saturday where we played pretty well, I think it's just a kudos to our team and how we're fun to watch.
"It was fun having the energy there and, like, [Kemper] would call a play, you couldn't even hear it. I was like, 'Well, this is great, like, this is fun.' And so it definitely made the atmosphere way more fun."