LAKE CHARLES, La. — Central Arkansas battled back from 11 down in the second half, outscoring McNeese State 49-36 over the final period to leave Burton Coliseum with an 88-82 victory on Monday.

"I was real proud of our guys," said Central Arkansas head coach Russ Pennell. "This is one of the first ones where we've come from behind to win. I thought we showed some heart, especially since 48 hours ago we got popped pretty good. To come out out tonight and show some heart and character was really good."

Down 66-55 midway through the half, the Bears (7-17, 6-8 Southland) went on a 20-6 run over the next eight minutes to grab the lead from the Cowboys (6-19, 4-11) and held it for most of duration, retaking the lead for good with 2:17 left on a 3-point play from Jordan Howard to make it 81-79.

Mathieu Kamba scored on the next possession for the Bears for a four-point lead, and the teams traded free throws on their following possessions. After a McNeese free throw with 42 seconds left, Jeff Lowery answered with one of his own with 22 seconds left, and after James Harvey missed a 3-pointer on the other end, Lowery sank two more with 9 seconds left to close it out.

"Our formula in wins has been pretty simple," Pennell said. "We've rebounded the ball well defensively and we've not turned the ball over. Tonight we wind up with 13 turnovers. We're such a good shooting team, if we get shots on goal, there's a pretty good chance we're going to make it. The thing that kicks our backsides sometimes is our carelessness. I thought we got a little careless and lost our poise on a play or two late in the first half. But at halftime our guys did a good job of steadying themselves and executing in the second half."

The Bears had three players score 20 points in a game for the first time since Nov. 16, 2013, with Howard leading the way with 24, Derreck Brooks 23 and Kamba 20. Kamba narrowly missed a double-double, pulling down 9 rebounds – second on the team behind Jake Zuilhof's career-high 15, 12 coming in the second half as the Bears out rebounded the Cowboys 42-31 for the game.

"When we have Jordan, Mathieu and Derreck going, we're really good," Pennell said. "They're all different players, and when we were making our move, we were running set plays designed for each of them, and they executed and did a fine job of getting us over the hump. Those three are as good as anybody in the league, and when they're playing well we're pretty good."

McNeese came out of the gates hot, shooting 47.1 percent (8 of 17) from 3-point range in the first half, but were limited to just 18.2 percent (2 of 11) in the second half. The Bears, meanwhile, were efficient from long range – making 42.9 percent from the game – but attempted half as many as the Cowboys, going 6 for 14.

But it was a combination of shooting 55.2 percent from the field in the second half, and shooting 82.8 percent from the free throw line (24 of 29) – nearly 20 percent above their season average – that allowed the Bears to outscore the Cowboys down the stretch.

The Bears were also aided by turning the ball over only four times in the second half after the Cowboys had scored 16 points off nine UCA turnovers in the first half.

"I really believe probably the biggest key to basketball in all games is valuing possessions," Pennell said. "If a team values possessions and get shots on goal consistently, that's the team that usually wins. We're getting better at that, and it's a formula where when we're good at it we've won, and when we're bad we've lost."

The win gives the Bears their second highest conference win total since joining the Southland in 2007, trailing the 7 wins by the 2012-13 team with four games left to play, including the final three in the Farris Center after Saturday's game at Southeastern Louisiana.