CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears had trouble making field goals in the first half and free throws in the second half and suffered a 73-69 loss to the Southeastern Louisiana Lions on Sunday at the Farris Center.

The Bears (7-8, 1-1) shot just 31.3 percent from the field in the first half, then connected on just 14 of 22 from the line in the second half, including five of their last 12 over the final three minutes to drop their first Southland Conference game of the season.

"We played desperate when we got behind enough, but we did not play desperate early,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. 'Our basketball team is very talented, yet we still have aspects of our game that are not up to par, and one of them is our mental toughness. We still don't have that mentality that we're just going to jump on you early and seize this opportunity and play hard every possession.

"And that's troubling. I think we're good enough to be competitive. I think on a given night, when another team doesn't really challenge us physically, we're probably going to win. But I think when people get after us, and we back down a little bit, I think you're going to see more results like tonight unfortunately, unless we have some heart changes.' 

The poor shooting first half still left the Bears down just 36-31 at halftime as UCA made 8 of 11 at the free-throw line and forced the Lions into 10 turnovers. UCA fought back early in the half, tying the game on Ethan Lee's layup with 18:04 left. Lee, a senior from Camden, Ark., finished with nine points and a season-high nine rebounds. 

UCA, coming off an 81-69 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Thursday in its SLC opener, could never grab the lead in the second half but did cut an eight-point deficit down to just four points after Hayden Koval and Thatch Unruh combined to go 3 of 4 at the line, the final one by Unruh with just 33.5 seconds remaining. Freshman Matthew Mondesir chased down SLU guard Marlain Veal and blocked his layup attempt, with Lee securing the rebound, with 29 seconds left.

Darraja Parnell misfired on the possession, got his own rebound and was fouled by SLU's Moses Greenwood with 21.5 left. But he missed both free throws and Eddie Polanco made 1 of 2 for the Lions, who were actually worse at the line than the Bears at 14 of 26 (53.8 percent). Jordan Howard missed a three-point attempt but DeAndre Jones rebounded for UCA. After a time out, Mathieu Kamba scored inside for the Bears to make it a 72-69 deficit with 4.2 seconds left.

Jones fouled Veal for his fifth foul and after missing the first, the Lions' junior guard made the second free throw to seal the victory.

"The biggest thing we were doing in the first half was we were holding the ball too long,' said Pennell. "It was getting stuck. We weren't moving . It was almost like we were playing against a zone. The second half, I thought we moved the ball a little bit better, but it was still not good enough. I think the big thing right now is there has to be a trust factor, and it starts with (senior guard) Jordan (Howard).

"That if he's not hitting shots or they're getting after him, he has got to become a distributor. And I think when he doesn't, we get to standing around waiting on him. And it's not all his fault. I think sometimes you have a guy that scores that kind of points, you keep thinking he's good for a 10- to 12-point run on his own. We have to learn that other guys need to make plays and the ball has to be shared equally. And then Jordan will figure his out.'

Howard, the reigning SLC Player of the Week for the second time this season, finished with a team-high 13 points but was just 4 of 15 from the field, including 1 of 10 in the opening half. Junior Thatch Unruh, coming off a 20-point effort in the win over the Islanders, had 12 points but made 3 of 13 from the field and 1 of 6 from three-point range.  For the game, UCA was 5 of 19 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc after entering the game as the second-best three-point shooting team in the league.

SLU (8-7, 2-0) had four players in double figures, led by Polanco with 14 points. UCA held Veal to just 10 points after he had scored 28 and 24 against the Bears in the two meetings last season. Freshman DeAndre Jones drew the assignment most of the game.

"DeAndre is such a good all-around player,' said Pennell. "I'm so happy with him, as far as I think he does play hard all the time. I think he competes at a very, very high level. He's barely 5-foot-9 but he's in there getting five rebounds. And I thought he did a fantastic job on Veal. DeAndre did his part, and I just wish we had come up with a little better effort from some others.'

Jones, a true freshman from Boise, Idaho, finished with 11 points, 5 rebounds and and a career-high 2 blocked shots in 22 minutes off the bench. 

UCA hits the road for two consecutive games this week, playing at Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas, on Wednesday (6:30) and at Lamar in Beaumont, Texas, on Saturday (4:30).