CONWAY, Ark. – The Sam Houston Bearkats picked up their first Southland Conference win of the season on Saturday afternoon, holding off Central Arkansas, 67-60, at the Farris Center.
 
Faith Cook and Amber Leggett led the way in the scoring column for the Kats (5-4, 1-2 SLC) with Cook delivering 23 and Leggett 20, while the defense forced 29 UCA (2-8, 0-2 SLC) turnovers and held the Sugar Bears without a 3-point field goal in the game.
 
Cook connected on four 3-point tries of her own and was 7-for-7 at the foul line, extending her streak to 33 consecutive made free throws to start the season. The Kats needed that work at the charity stripe as the rest of the team hit on just 14 of 30 tries in what was a nip-and-tuck game throughout.
 
Sam Houston also got seven points from Madelyn Batista and Courtney Cleveland with Cleveland also adding eight rebounds and three steals.
 
The Kats got each of their first nine points on long-range buckets, but otherwise were just 4-for-14 from the field in the opening quarter, finding themselves tied at 11-11 after 10 minutes of play.
 
UCA had the defensive clamps turned on in the second quarter, holding SHSU without a bucket for nearly seven minutes of game time before a score from Madelyn Batista broke the skid. The Sugar Bears had built up a 20-16 advantage in that span before the Kats responded with a 7-0 run that included four points from Leggett to take a 23-20 lead of their own.
 
Still, it took scores from Faith Cook on each of the Kats' last two possessions to take a lead into the halftime locker room, going up 28-26 on her second 3-pointer of the game that found net just before the halftime buzzer.
 
Both teams played well offensively in the third quarter with UCA hitting 11-for-15 from the floor in the quarter; however, the Sugar Bears were able to trim the deficit by a point.
 
The fourth quarter, however, belonged to the Kats. SHSU led by just six until Cook's final triple of the day stretched the lead to nine with just over four minutes to play. UCA was not able to get any offense going in the final minutes, hitting just 2-for-11 in the fourth quarter from the field.
 
The Kats will go after their second straight league win on Wednesday at Lamar. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. from the Montagne Center in Beaumont and will be aired on ESPN+.