LITTLE ROCK _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears dug themselves a 10-point hole in the first half Tuesday night against the undefeated Little Rock Trojans, and after a furious comeback late in the game, ended up with a 79-73 loss in front of a crowd of 3,638 at the Jack Stephens Center.

    The Bears (1-5) outscored the Trojans (6-0) 45-41 in the second half and cut the deficit to four points with just 30 seconds left before Little Rock made 4 of 4 at the free-throw line to seal it. 

    "I thought we battled hard,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell, "especially the last 10 minutes. We played with a desparation that we needed to play with the entire game. I was proud of our effort. We're growing. We're a better team than we've been. But like I told them in the locker room, we can't be satisfied with playing people close.

    "Because it's still a loss and it still stinks, but we have to learn from it and get better.'    

    The Bears connected on five first-half three-pointers but still trailed the Trojans 38-28 at halftime. Sophomore guard Jordan Howard had 13 points for the Bears while junior transfer guard Marcus Johnson Jr. led the Trojans with 12. Johnson picked up where he left off in the second half scoring nine points in the opening five minutes of the half to offset an early 7-0 run by the Bears.

    UCA cut the 10-point deficit to just three at 40-37 on senior center Jake Zuilhof's basket, but the Trojans answered with a 7-0 run of their own. Derreck Brooks nailed a three-pointer for UCA and Jeff Lowery scored in transition to cut it back to 49-42 at the 13:00 mark.

    But the Trojans pushed the lead back to as much as 12 points twice before the Bears mounted their late comeback. Howard's third three-pointer cut it to nine points with 2:50 left. Mathieu Kamba added a pair of free throws to make it 71-64 at the two-minute mark. Little Rock got a pair at the line from Johnson, who finished with 24 points, before UCA got two free throws from Kamba, a driving layup by Jeff Lowery and a three-point play from Kamba to make it a 75-71 game.with 30 seconds left.

    Johnson then hit twice from the line and Josh Hagins added a pair to set the final. The Trojans made 20 of 23 at the line (87 percent), including 11 of 13 in the second half. 

    The Trojans entered the game as one of the top defensive team in the nation, allowing just 51 points per game and defensive field goal percentage (34 percent). For the game, UCA shot 48.9 percent overall and 44.4 percent from beyond the arc (8 of 18). The 73 points were the most allowed by Little Rock this season.  

    "We shot the ball well enough to win,' said Pennell. "I'll take that most nights. But the biggest thing is, our defense wasn't as good as it needed to be and we also had 19 turnovers. You can't do that in a close ballgame. We knew this group (Little Rock) played really good defense, and it took us until the second half to figure that out a little bit.

    "But we played the type of basketball we need to play in the last 10 minutes, and I was proud of that.'

   Howard, who scored 10 of the Bears' first 13 points in the second half, finished with a team-high 22, while hitting 4 of 6 from three-point range. Brooks added 16 points, 7 rebounds and a career-high 4 blocked shots. 

    The Bears head to Norman, Okla., to take on the No. 6/7 Oklahoma Sooners at 7 p.m. Thursday, then to Pittsburgh to face the Pitt Panthers at 11 a.m. Sunday.