CONWAY, Ark. _ Five University of Central Arkansas Bears will play the final home game of their basketball careers on Wednesday night when the Bears host UT-San Antonio at 7 p.m. at the Farris Center.
The five players to be honored in pre-game “Senior Night” ceremonies include: four-year players Dewan Clayborn and Chris Henson, two-year player Mark Rutledge and first-year seniors Joe Harris and Jeremy Nordman.
The Bears (8-91, 3-11) are coming off a big 64-63 victory over Southeastern Louisiana last Saturday night at the Farris Center that broke a 10-game losing streak. Despite the victory, the Bears were eliminated from a shot at a Southland Conference tournament berth by virtue of Nicholls State and Texas State both winning on Saturday.
This will be the first and only meeting between the Bears and Roadrunners (16-13, 8-6), who were picked to win the SLC West Division but currently sit in third place behind UT Arlington and Stephen F. Austin. UTSA leads the overall series with UCA 3-2 but the Roadrunners are 0-2 in games played in Conway.
UCA is 6-6 at the Farris Center this season and would like to close out the home slate with a winning mark.
The Roadrunners, who won last year’s meeting 70-58 in San Antonio, are led by Melvin Johnson III, who is among the Top 10 scorers in school history with 1,078 points and is third in career three-pointers with 190. UTSA leads the league in three-point shooting (39.2 percent), three-pointers per game (8.3) and also free-throw shooting (75.3).
UCA counters with the fifth-highest scoring team in the SLC (71.6 ppg) and the third-best rebounding team (37.9). Individually, sophomore LaQuentin Miles is fourth in scoring (15.0), 10th in field-goal percentage (48.4) and second in steals (1.9). Junior Jarvis Garner has come on strong of late, including a career-high 28 points last Wednesday at Nicholls State, and is averaging 10.3 points and 6.2 rebounds.
Clayborn, from Little Rock Parkview, is in the Top 10 in school history in both three-point field goals and steals, and is 14th in career assists.
The Bears close out the season on the road Saturday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
