CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears made it two straight Tuesday night with an 88-72 victory over the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in Southland Conference action at the Farris Center.
All five UCA starters scored in double figures as the Bears (5-15, 4-6) followed up their 35-point win over New Orleans with a 16-point margin on Tuesday in a game in which they never trailed. The Bears shot 52.1 percent overall from the field and 41.2 percent (7 of 17) from three-point range. Sophomore guard Jordan Howard, the second-leading scorer in the SLC, scored 19 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, hitting 12 of 13 from the line for the game.
"I thought our guys had a real nice carryover from Saturday night,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "And I don't believe in a lot of carryover, because teams are different and everything else. But I thought our energy was there again, the intensity. And I thought we got off to another good start, and that's kind of what we've been trying to hang our hat on.
"I was really proud of the guys for putting forth the effort they gave.'
The Bears shots 56 percent from the field in the first half and made 10 of 13 (76.9 percent) from the free-throw line for a 42-36 halftime advantage. Brooks led the Bears with 14 points and Mathieu Kamba had 12.
UCA then put together a 12-3 run early in the second half that basically put the game away. Howard dropped in 10 points in a four-minute span, senior Justin Foreman made a three-point play and a three-point basket and graduate center Jake Zuilhof slammed home a dunk to send the Bears to a 13-point lead midway through the half. The lead would eventually reach as much as 22 points with 5:27 to play on Zuilhof's free throw.
Down the stretch, the Bears made 15 of 18 free throws. For the game, the Bears were 31 of 42 at the stripe.
The Bears held the Lions to just 40.3 percent shooting, and just 34.4 percent in the second half. The final margin would have been worse had the Lions not made 11 three-pointers, with three different players making three each.
"We're playing kind of a matchup zone where we're trying to take certain things away,' said Pennell. "We're giving up some threes, giving up some open looks on the outside. But what we're really trying to do is quit fouling and giving up easy baskets. We're still not there yet, but there are stretches in the game, and it happened tonight in the second half, where a team will go cold for a little bit. And that's when we've been able to excel.
"Offensively, I like what we're doing. I think we're a good offensive team. We just haven't had enough stops. When we started doing this, we were last in the league in field goal percentage (defense). Teams were scoring almost 50 percent against us. And in our first two games of doing this, the other night it was 41 percent against New Orleans, and today it was 40 percent. So we're going the right direction.'
Brooks finished with 18 points (4 of 5 from three-point range) and 9 rebounds, while Mathieu Kamba had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Foreman added 11 points and a team-high 5 assists, while Zuilhof had 10 points and 7 rebounds.
"I tell you, I thought Mathieu Kamba got a couple of rebounds that there is nobody in the world that can rebound that well,' said Pennell. "He had his head up over the rim. I just really, really like the way he's playing and the intensity he's bringing to the team.
"I pulled Derreck and Mathieu aside right before introductions and I said, they're really going to be keying on Jordan so I need you two to step up. It's funny, when you tell those guys that, they're pretty good about it. We tell them that all the time, but I think they know when we're really in need of it. I thought Derreck got us off to a great start hitting those early jumpers.'
The Lions' top three scorers all came off the bench with Dimi Cook scoring 15 points. Moses Greenwood 12 and JaMichael Hawkins 11.
The Bears return to the road on Friday, taking on Incarnate Word in San Antonio.
