CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears, coming off their best defensive outing of the season, hope to bring that same intensity into Saturday's matchup with the Abilene Christian Wildcats at 3:30 at the Farris Center.

The Bears improved to 10-10 overall and 4-3 in Southland Conference play with Wednesday's 81-57 victory at New Orleans, holding the first-place Privateers to 34.4 percent shooting overall and 18.2 percent (2 of 11) shooting from three-point range. UCA forced 17 turnovers, which helped lead to 21 fast-break points, and also outscored UNO 41-28 in the paint.

Now the Bears face an ACU team coming off a 76-66 home loss to Stephen F. Austin, a game in which the Wildcats' defense was equally as good as UCA's. SFA shot just  39 percent overall and just 23.5 percent (4 of 17) from beyond the arc. The Wildcats lost, at least partly, because of 22 turnovers and 29 personal fouls. 

"We're looking forward to getting back home and playing,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell, following the UNO win. "It's like I told our guys, we don't need to worry about who we play, we need to worry about how we play. If we play like we did tonight (against UNO), we will not only be in every ballgame, but we will win a lot of those games. Because that was a complete game on both ends of the floor. 

UCA, the top three-point shooting team in the league with a couple of the best individuals as well, won despite making just 4 of 18 (22.2 percent) from the arc.

"I looked at the stat sheet and we're 4 for 18 from three-point and you would have thought we would have lost,' said Pennell. "But we shoot 50 percent overall and we hold them to 34 percent... and that's the way you win. You can't win just one way. If you do that, people figure out how to stop you.

"Real proud of our guys. I thought that was a really good team win and a complete win.' 

The key for the Wildcats (12-8, 4-3) appears to be balance, with four players averaging 9.8 points per game or better, led by Jalone Friday at 13.5. The 6-foot-9 sophomore is shooting 47.9 percent from the field and has made a team-high 31 three-pointers while shooting 39 percent from long range. Junior forward Jaren Lewis is close behind at 13.4 points per game and a team-high 6.5 rebounds. He is also shooting 61.8 percent from the field, which ranks second in the SLC.

UCA's leading scorer is senior guard Jordan Howard, who is just 28 points away from breaking the career scoring record at UCA. That mark, held by UCA Hall of Famer Clifton Bush, has stood at 2,157 points since 1992. Howard, who is already the career three-point leader at both UCA and the Southland Conference, enters Saturday's game with career 2,130 points.

Two freshmen have been putting up valuable minutes and numbers recently. Since joining the starting lineup four games ago against Lamar, point guard DeAndre Jones has averaged 10.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 3.0 steals, while averaging just 2 turnovers per game. Hayden Koval, a 7-foot freshman center, leads the SLC in blocked shots by a large margin with 51 (2.7 per game) and had 5 in the UNO victory. Friday is next with 33. Koval is also averaging 9.5 points adn 5.3 rebounds for the Bears.

Tip-off is set for approximately 3:30 following the women's game between UCA and ACU. The Bears, who have played four of their past five games on the road, are also at home on Wednesday night, taking on Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m.