CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears put together a furious rally from 18 points down to get to within six of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders on Tuesday night before falling 77-70 in Southland Conference action at the Farris Center.

    UCA freshman guard Thatch Uhruh nailed a three-pointer with 47 seconds left to cut the deficit to 71-64. After a pair of Islander free throws, junior guard Mike Martin turned a steal into a layup for a 73-66 difference. A&M-CC added one more free throw before Martin scored again on a driving layup to make it 74-68 with 17 seconds to play.

    Senior guard John Jordan, who had a game-high 23 points (13 of 16 at the free-throw line) for the Islanders (6-7, 1-0) then made 3 of 4 free throws to seal the victory. 

    "I told them in the locker room, I thought this was our best game of the year,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "Not necessarily the aesthetic part of it, it was wasn't real pretty. But I thought tonight they competed like you have to compete to win. We made a ton of mistakes with 22 turnovers, and a lot of them unforced. We'll correct those.

    "But the thing I've been wanting to see, that I saw tonight, was the continual fight, from tip to horn. And I think that's hopefully indicative of who we're becoming. We're getting better every day in practice, we're seeing it. We haven't put it into games much yet, but that's not unusual with a young team. You can't go away and enjoy moral victories, but I think it's a start.

    "And I hope we can point to this as maybe where we start turning the corner.'

    The Bears certainly turned it around in the second half Tuesday. After finishing the first half with 13 turnovers and a 31.8 shooting percentage, UCA came back and shot 55.6 percent overall in the second half, including 5 of 11 from three-point range. UCA outshot A&M-CC for the game, 44.9 percent to 36.4 percent, and also outrebounded the Islanders 40-34. The turnover differential was the glaring difference, with UCA's 22 and A&M-CC's 14.

 

    Unruh finished with 17 points, while junior center Jake Zuilhof had his first double-double at UCA with career highs of 17 points and 12 rebounds and played the entire 40 minutes. Martin added 13 points and freshman guard Jordan Howard scored 12, hitting 7 of 8 at the free-throw line and making a four-point play during the second-half run.

    "He (Unruh) made some mistakes tonight,' said Pennell, "but the thing I love is his grit. When his body matures and becomes kind of even with his mind _ because his mind is pretty mature, a good basketball IQ guy _ he's going to be a heck of a player. He has really been playing good basketball and I love his heart. I was really happy with him tonight.'
    
    The Bears, down 16 at halftime, began chipping away at the margin about the 15-minute mark and got it down to eight points at 49-41 on freshman Tyler Simmons' first career basket, a three-pointer at the 13:13 mark. The Islanders quickly pushed the lead back to 16 points over the next six minutes, but UCA came back once again.

    An 11-2 run, fueled by three-pointers from Unruh and Howard, made it a 65-59 game with 3:45 to play. 

    "Jake hasn't played a lot of basketball,' said Pennell. "He's just now coming into his own. He had 17 and 12 and I thought he should have had 25 and 20. And that's no knock on him, but I think that's what he's capable of. I think he can be one of the better post guys in this league by next year. What I like, the old Jake, when he missed the dunk, would have hung his head and not done anything for the next 20 minutes.

    "But the very next play he comes back and get an and-one. To me, that's the maturity I'm seeing in these guys. It doesn't show up sometimes in the boxscore or with our fans, but I see what's happening.'

    The Bears (0-13, 0-2) return to the road this weekend, taking on the Lamar Cardinals at 6 p.m. Saturday in Beaumont, Texas.