CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears came back but could not come all the way back Saturday afternoon at the Farris Center, dropping a 62-61 decision to Abilene Christian in the Southland Conference opener for both teams.
UCA (1-10, 0-1), down by eight at halftime as much as 14 points early in the second half, put together a furious run late and had a chance to win at the buzzer. ACU (6-8, 1-0) led 60-55 with 1:30 to play, but UCA got one free throw from sophomore guard Jordan Howard at the 1:22 mark, followed by a three-point play by sophomore Boo Milligan to make it 60-59 with just less than a minute to play.
ACU center Duran Porter was fouled with 21 seconds left and made both free throws but UCA's Justin Foreman drove the lane for a layup to close the gap to 62-61 with 6.4 seconds left. UCA fouled ACU sharpshooter Parker Wentz but he missed the front end of the one-and-one and Foreman rebounded. However, Howard's off-balance three-pointer from in front of the UCA bench missed at the buzzer.
The Bears outscored the Wildcats 33-26 in the second half but made just 9 of 20 from the free-throw line in the second half, and 11 of 22 for the game.
"I told the guys I was very proud of their effort in the second half,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "I didn't think in the first half that we really competed like I want us to compete. We kind of got in hole and somehow we found the resolve to fight back. Tonight it really came down to free-throw shooting. We just didn't make free throws.
"And it's been interesting. We've either been really hot or really cold on free throws. Some games we've missed one or two when we've shot 30 of them. Then today we're 11 for 22. But I think if we can bottle up what we did in the second half with our effort, and compete like that, we'll have a chance to win some games.'
The Bears made four three-pointers in the first half _ 3 of 4 from Howard _ but still found themselves down 36-28 at the half. UCA trailed by as much as 11 points but a three from Howard in the final seconds cut the margin to just six points. But ACU's Jovan Crnic connected at the buzzer for the eight-point margin.
The Wildcats got nine of their points from the free-throw line, making 9 of 10 in the first 20 minutes. UCA was 2 of 2 at the line. Howard and Foreman had 11 points each for UCA, while true freshman Tanner Schmit added four.
After allowing ACU to make 3 of 3 from three-point range in the second half, the Bears held the Wildcats to just 1 of 6 from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes.Wentz, the SLC leader in three-point percentage, finished 1 of 6 for the game.
"We did get out on their shooters a lot better in the second half,' said Pennell, 'and it gave us a lift and kind of helped us get back in the game. My message to them in the locker room was, if we can figure out why the second half was different than the first, what triggered in your brain, what was the difference... because the message was the same.
"If they can figure that part out and learn how to compete from the time the ball gets tossed up, and not have to get behind before you get motivated. Young teams do that sometimes. They almost think they have time to kind of work themselves into the game, and all of a sudden they're down 10-12 points. And then you're playing uphill the rest of the game.
"We have to get better at that. We have to get off to a better start, and then follow it through for an entire game. I am seeing the progress coming but we just have to get better.'
Howard finished with a game-high 18 points, followed by Foreman with 15 and sophomore Mathieu Kamba with 10 off the bench. UCA ended up out-shooting ACU from the field, 41.1 percent to 38.2. However, ACU made 16 of 19 (84.2 percent) from the free throw line. Jaren Lewis led the Wildcats with 14 points, while Jaylen Franklin added 13.
UCA hits the road on Tuesday for a matchup with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tipoff is set for 7:30 at the American Bank Center.
