CONWAY, Ark. _  The University of Central Arkansas Bears finally found a way to win Saturday, scoring the game’s final six points to knock off the Southeastern Louisiana Lions 64-63 in a back-and-forth Southland Conference matchup in front of 2,320 fans at the Farris Center.

The victory broke a 10-game losing streak for UCA (8-19, 3-11), which last won on Jan. 21. The Bears have two games remaining in the regular season, at home Wednesday against UTSA and on the road at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next Saturday.

“I’m just happy for our guys,’ said UCA head coach Corliss Williamson. “They’ve come to practice, they’ve been working hard. We’re still pushing them to grow and get better. I’ve been happy with the fact that they haven’t just completely given up. They’ve come to work every day in practice.

“And to finally get a win, especially the way it happened.. I’m happy for them. It was something that was long overdue for us and I’m happy we finally got that ‘W’ we were searching for.’

The Bears, who lost to the Lions in overtime in the season’s first meeting back on Jan. 25, fell behind by as much as 10 points late in the first half but got to within five at 30-25 at halftime. Using pressure defense and wholesale substitutions early in the second half, UCA ran out to a 10-point lead on a layup by freshman Lenell Brown with 10 minutes remaining.

But the Lions (10-17, 3-11) stormed back with a 15-4 scoring run to take a four-point lead at 59-55 with 3:10 left to play. Junior Robert Crawford nailed a three-pointer from the left corner for the Bears but the Lions would not go away, pushing their lead back to 63-58 on Daron Populist’s jumper at the 1:05 mark.

Junior Jarvis Garner of Conway, who was just 4 of 13 shooting for the game, drilled a three-pointer with 27 seconds left to pull the Bears within 63-61. UCA’s Ryan Williams fouled DeShawn Patterson, a 52-percent free throw shooter on the season, and he missed both attempts with 21 seconds to play.

Sophomore LaQuentin Miles, the league’s fourth-leading scorer, drove the left side of the lane, made the layup to tie it at 65 and was fouled by Patterson. Miles’ free throw put UCA ahead by one with 11.9 seconds remaining. SLU’s Antonnio Benton drove deep into the lane under tight pressure and misfired as the buzzer sounded, allowing UCA to escape with the win.

“We remembered at their place, when we pressured them, they turned the basketball over,’ Williamson said of his team’s second half approach. “We really didn’t turn the pressure up a lot in the first half, but we thought in the second half we were going to try to really push them, pressure them full court.

“That’s why we did something odd, wholesale subbing, to try to keep our guys fresh. And the guys really bought into it. They went out and really played hard for the minutes they were out there and gave us an opportunity to win this game.’

Williamson said the decision to change the defensive attack came about strictly at halftime. It worked as the Lions had 13 turnovers in the second half. The Bears’ defense forced a season-high 23 turnovers, topping the 21 the Lions had in the first meeting.

“We’ve been trying to figure out how do we get our guys to play better in the second half,’ said Williamson. “It seems like our guys kind of pace themselves at times and are scared to get tired. So we changed the lineup up a little bit and put some guys in there who were high energy guys to start it off. We kept them in there for three minutes and they went strong. Then the other guys came in and followed through, too.”

The Bears only had two players in double figures, with Miles and redshirt freshman guard Oliver Wells scoring 10 points apiece. Garner added 9 points and 9 rebounds. UCA had eight different players with a steal. UCA made only 7 of 18 free throw attempts (38.9) and was outrebounded 51-30.

Benton topped SLU with 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Populist added 12 points for the Lions, who lost their 13th straight road game dating back to last season.

UCA will play its final home game of the season on Wednesday against UTSA on Senior Night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.