Southeastern clinches Southland Tournament berth despite loss at UCA

CONWAY, Ark. – Despite a 53-47 loss to Central Arkansas Wednesday night at the Farris Center, the Southeastern Louisiana women’s basketball team clinched its first berth in the Southland Conference Tournament since the 2011-12 season.

SLU (12-16, 9-10 Southland) will return to the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas for the league tournament, which opens next Thursday. Central Arkansas (12-16, 8-11 Southland) will close out its season with a home game versus Northwestern State on Saturday.

“We certainly wanted to get this win tonight, but we’re proud of the work we’ve put in prior to tonight to get back into the postseason,” Southeastern head coach Ayla Guzzardo said. “Now that we know we’ve reached that goal, we have to refocus on closing out the regular season strong and giving our best effort in Katy.”

A Lady Lion loss on Saturday at UNO or a UIW win versus Abilene Christian locks SLU into the No. 8 seed and a rematch with UNO in Thursday’s first round. If Southeastern wins and UIW loses, the Lady Lions could move up to the No. 7 seed.

Morgan Carrier led Southeastern and tied a career high with 20 points in Wednesday’s loss. Caitlyn Williams pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for SLU, while Aminat Jubtil dished out three assists to pace SLU.

Taylor Sells led a balanced Sugar Bear attack with 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists. She was joined in double figures by Hannah Langhi (11 points) and Briana Trigg (10 points).

After an evenly played first quarter, UCA was able to pull away in the second quarter. The Lady Lions were held to just four points in the period and went into the break down, 26-17.

A three by Jyar Francis cut the Sugar Bear lead to 32-31 with four minutes left in the third quarter. However, UCA closed the period with a 6-2 run to go into the final 10 minutes with a 38-33 lead.

The Sugar Bears would grow the lead to as many as 11 in the final quarter. Southeastern cut it to as close to four in the final minute, but could not come all the way back.

Up Next
SLU closes the 2019-20 regular season with a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday at UNO. The game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9), online at www.LionSports.net/listenlive and via the TuneIn Radio and Lions Game Day Experience apps.

Southeastern Louisiana 47 (12-16, 9-10 SLC)
Carrier 6-12 6-7 20, Williams 3-5 1-4 8, Jubril 0-1 0-0 0, Sterling 2-8 2-2 6, Morrison 2-6 0-0 4, Dugas 1-3 0-0 2, Francis 2-8 0-0 5, Giaratano 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 17-45 9-13 47.
Central Arkansas 54 (12-16, 8-11 SLC)
B. Trigg 4-12 2-2 10, Crawford 1-3 2-2 4, Langhi 4-12 2-2 11, Dominguez 3-8 0-0 7, Sells 4-10 4-5 13, A. Trigg 1-5 7-7 9, Canady 0-0 0-0 0, Walker 0-1 0-0 0, Hudspeth 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-51 17-18 54.
End of 1st Quarter – UCA 15, SLU 13. Halftime – UCA 26, SLU 17. End of 3rd Quarter – UCA 38, SLU 33. 3-point goals – SLU 4-11 (Carrier 2-5, Francis 1-4, Williams 1-1, Dugas 0-1), UCA 3-10 (Dominguez 1-4, Sells 1-2, Langhi 1-1, B. Trigg 0-3). Technical Fouls – SLU Team. Fouled Out – None. Rebounds – SLU 31 (Williams 10), UCA 36 (Sells, A. Trigg 8). Assists – SLU 7 (Jubril 3), UCA 7 (Sells 4). Total Fouls – SLU 18, UCA 13. A – 86.

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