CONWAY, Ark _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears got clutch shooting from the free-throw line, of all places, and earned their first Southland Conference victory of the season on Wednesday night.
UCA made 14 of 16 from the line, including 4 of 5 in the final 38 seconds, to hold off the Southeastern Louisiana Lions 62-59 before a season-high crowd of 2,027 at the Farris Center.
The Bears broke a six-game losing streak and improved to 5-14 overall and 1-5 in the SLC. The Lions (8-9, 2-3) lost for the third time in the past four games.
“It feels great to finally get a win here at home, and in conference,’ said first-year head coach Corliss Williamson. “Our guys, I’m very proud of them because they could have easily packed it in with all the tough games we’ve lost this year. But they’re a team that comes to practice every day, trying to learn and eager to work hard.
As a result, like I told them, if we stay relentless in our pursuit of excellence, we would eventually win that game. And hopefully start a trend.’
The Bears enjoyed as much as a 16-point lead in the first half but had to settle for a 35-28 halftime lead. It got tight down the stretch as the Lions fought back and tied the game at 50-50 with 9:16 remaining. Southeastern eventually went ahead 55-50 on a dunk by DeShawn Patterson with 7:35 to play with but the Bears did not quit.
“Just us being us I guess,’ said Williamson. “There’s been times when we’ve had a lead and the other team has come back and taken it, where we’ve just kind of lost our minds. We start taking bad shots and try to get it back too soon.
“But we were able to settle ourselves down and make a few shots. Our guys understood, you know, we learned from some of our mistakes in the past. We did a great job of sticking with it and holding our composure together at the end.’
Senior guard Imad Qahwash drove the lane twice for baskets and sophomore center Terry Tidwell scored inside to give the Bears a 58-55 lead with 3:25 to play. The teams traded leads for the next three minutes until UCA senior forward Tadre Sheppard made two free throws with 38.9 seconds to give the Bears the lead for good at 60-59.
SLU’s Jason Marks missed a three-point attempt and after UCA rebounded, the Lions fouled senior guard Mike Pouncy. The Lions, third in the Southland in three-point shooting on the year, went 0 for 12 from beyond the arc.
Pouncy missed the front end of the one-and-one attempt but Patterson missed on SLU’s end with 8 seconds remaining. Sheppard was fouled again with 6.1 seconds left and made both free throws, with a time out sandwiched in between, to give the Bears the three-point victory.
Qahwash and Pouncy had 13 points each for the Bears, who shot 46.9 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line. SLU shot 38.7 percent overall and was outrebounded 33-28 by the Bears. UCA won despite 21 turnovers.
“The biggest thing I’m proud of is we were 14 of 16 at the free-throw line,’ Williamson said, “and that was big. The game against Northwestern (State) here (an overtime loss), if we had shot from the free-throw line like we did today, we possibly could have two wins in conference.
“And we did a good job on the boards. We gave up a few second-chance rebounds in the second half towards the end. But at the very end, we were able to secure the rebounds when we needed to.’
UCA continues its homestand on Saturday against McNeese State as part of a doubleheader with the Sugar Bears. Tipoff for the Sugar Bears is 2 p.m., followed by the Bears at approximately 4:30.
