ABILENE, Texas _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears improved to 2-1 in the Southland Conference for the first time Thursday night with an 81-76 victory over the Abilene Christian Wildcats at Moody Coliseum.
UCA (3-13, 2-1) got a pair of free throws from senior Jeff Lowery in the final seconds to seal the victory. Juniors Jordan Howard and Mathieu Kamba had 28 points each, with Kamba's a career high. The Bears were 17 of 22 (77.3 percent) from the free-throw line while the Wildcats (6-8, 0-3) were just 7 of 20, including several one-and-one misses in the second half. UCA also won the rebound battle by a 44-26 margin.
"It was just a good team victory,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "I told the guys when you play conference games on the road, they are going to be that way. You can get a big lead but people aren't going away. You're not going to blow people out on their home court.
"But this gives you confidence that you can do this on the road. You have to come in with some confidence when you play on the road. I thought we got off to a great start and that was probably one of the biggest things. We were scoring early, the offense was good.
"And tonight we finally shot the ball well. I thought the offense was really good. I was a little disappointed at halftime that we were only up by five. And I felt like we were a little lethargic on the defensive end. But the second half we ramped it up a little bit.'
The Bears shot 59.3 percent from the field in the first half for a 42-37 lead. Kamba, a 6-foot-5, 210-pounder from Calgary, Alberta, was perfect in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 6 of 6 from the field, 2 of 2 from three-point range and 2 of 2 at the free-throw line. For the game, he was 9 of 10 overall and 8 of 10 from the line.
"I think that was probably one of his most complete games,' said Pennell. "He had a lot of confidence starting off the game hitting those jumpers and that kind of got him going. And boy did he have a big tip in. We were kind of leaking oil in the second half, I think it was a two-point game and Derreck had kind of tough shot from behind the backboard. It kind of rolled around and I just saw a big paw go up and tip it in.
"I thought he made some really opportune plays for us that we needed. And then he stepped up and made his free throws as well. That was just an outstanding game by Mathieu and I was really proud of him.'
The Bears led by 12 points early in the second half but the Wildcats put together a 10-2 run to get within two at 62-60 with 7 minutes to play. But UCA answered the rally withn an 8-0 run of its own over the next three minutes to push the lead back to 10. In the final 1:15, UCA made 7 of 10 at the free-throw line to put the game away. Lowery's final two free throws came after an ACU three-pointer cut the Wildcat's deficit to 79-76 with 6.3 seconds left.
"Abilene Christian came at us, but I thought we handled it and showed some poise,' said Pennell. "We made a couple of turnovers that I wasn't very happy about but I thought our guards did a nice job controlling the ball at the end of the game and getting it to the right people.'
Howard hit 3 of 6 from three-point range and was 7 of 8 at the line for his 28 points. Sophomore center Tanner Schmit had 8 points and 10 rebounds, while senior Derreck Brooks had 7 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists for the Bears.
UCA has a week off before going on the road next week for a pair of SLC games. The Bears are at Houston Baptist on Thursday and at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday.
