CONWAY, Ark. _ The first-place Houston Baptist Huskies used a 12-0 second-half scoring run to pull away to a 72-61 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears in Southland Conference play Tuesday night at the Farris Center.

    The Bears (2-13, 1-4) committed 24 turnovers _ 13 in the decisive second half _ and the Huskies turned those into 27 big points. HBU (11-7) held onto its lead in the SLC standings at 6-0 with its seventh consecutive victory. 

    "I didn't think the second half we took very good shots,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "I thought we got in way too big of a hurry and forced shots, and I didn't think we let the offense help us get good looks. Honestly, I just thought we shot ourselves in the foot over and over again. You can't turn the ball over 24 times and give them 27 points off of that, and expect to win games.

    "That's the second straight game that we've done that and it's very disheartening.'

    UCA sophomore guard Jordan Howard connected on four three-pointers in the first half that helped the Bears offset 30.8-percent shooting from the field. UCA took a 28-27 lead on Boo Milligan's three-pointer with 1:15 to play but HBU's Anthony Odunsi scored twice in the final 1:13 to give the Huskies a 30-28 halftime lead in a half that featured 11 lead changes.
    
    UCA shot slightly better in the second half and dominated the rebounding, but still could not stay with the Huskies, whose last loss was by 19 points at Arizona State on Dec. 19. The Bears outrebounded the Huskies 46-29, including a season-high 21 offensive rebounds. Graduate center Jake Zuilhof led the way with 10 boards, while senior guard Justin Foreman had 8 and junior guard Derreck Brooks had 7.

    "I thought we battled the glass pretty good,' said Pennell. "We have three things we always talk about. We say play hard,, we say play smart and we say play together. And I thought we played hard. I did not think we played smart. And I thought we played together at times, but not consistently enough. If you don't have those three things in a basketball game, you're probably not going to come out on top.'

    Senior guard Anthony Odunsi led the Huskies with 20 points, getting 11 (of 13) of those from the free-throw line. HBU was 25 of 33 (75.8 percent) from the line while UCA was 15 of 23 (65.2 percent).

    The Huskies turned a 43-40 deficit with 11:50 to play following a Brooks' three-pointer into a nine-point lead at 52-43 in a span of 2:30. UCA got it back to within three points at 52-49 but was then outscored 20-12 down the stretch. HBU's last six points came from Odunsi at the free-throw line.

    "I just thought we lost our patience midway through (the second half),' said Pennell. "And that was the difference. We weren't consistent enough tonight.'

    UCA now hits the road for three consecutive road games, beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday at Nicholls in Thibodaux, La. The game will be on carried live on ESPN3.