TULSA, Okla. — Central Arkansas saw its winning streak come to an end at three games as the Sugar Bears fell 70-60 at Oral Roberts on Saturday for their first conference loss of the season .

The Sugar Bears (8-6, 2-1) clawed back from a deficit as large as 12 in the second half to cut the ORU lead to as few as three with three minutes left, but the Golden Eagles (3-10, 2-1) outscored the Sugar Bears 9-2 down the stretch to close out the game.

In the closing minutes, UCA was just 1-for-5 from the field, while ORU went 7-of-8 from the free throw line. For the game, the Golden Eagles were 18-of-23 (78.3) from the line to 12-of-19 (63.2 percent) for the Sugar Bears.

"We turned the basketball over and missed a lot of assignments tonight," UCA head coach Sandra Rushing said. "And I think we lost our focus, and might have been a little bit intimidated. I'm not sure. But our youth was showing. I'm very disappointed."

The Sugar Bears committed 16 turnovers in the game, but 11 came in the second half while ORU had just 5 of their 15 in the final 20 minutes. That didn't stop the Sugar Bears from nearly erasing the Golden Eagles' double-digit lead, but ORU was too effective at the free throw line for UCA to ever regain the lead.

In the second half, the Sugar Bears limited ORU to 26.7 percent shooting at 8-for-30 and only 20 percent (1-of-5) from 3-point range, but the Golden Eagles converted 11 of 15 second-half free throws.

UCA got 16 points and eight rebounds, both team highs, from senior Courtney Duever. Freshman guard Maggie Proffitt added 13 points, and junior forward Terai Sadler added 12 points. ORU was led by freshman Alexus Wilson's 13 points and seven rebounds. Dorottya Balla added 13 and Bernadett Balla had 10 points and nine rebounds.

The Sugar Bears will continue their road swing next week when they make their first trip to Southland newcomers Incarnate Word on Thursday and Abilene Christian on Saturday.