NATCHITOCHES, La. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears made it two straight Saturday _ and fairly easily _ with a 95-78 victory over the Northwestern State Demons in Southland Conference action at Prather Coliseum.

The Bears had four players in double figures, led by senior guard Jordan Howard with 29, to move above .500 overall (12-11) and more importatly to 6-4 in league play. UCA shot 55.6 percent overall from the field and made 16 of 18 (88.9 percent) from the free-throw line. The Bears were coming off an emotional 100-92 victory over Stephen F. Austin at home on Saturday, their first win over the Lumberjacks.

The Demons dropped to 3-17 overall and 0-9 in the SLC.

"I thought we came in with the right mindset,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "We knew that this team (NSU), although wounded, still has some good pieces. And I thought early on, our defense was good. We turned them over a little bit and we were shooting the ball extremely well early on. The only thing I was a little concerned about was we had some careless turnovers. We had 10 turnovers, and four of them were just our blunders and not really what their defense did.

"The second half... it's tough to play with a lead. And you can warn your guys, you can talk about it, but that team in the white today ( NSU), they've got pride. They're not going to quit, they're not going to back down. So I knew that we'd have to hold on. And I thought for the most part, it never did get to a place where we got rattled or shook. We just kind of made plays where we needed to.'

Howard, coming off a 43-point effort against SFA, kept it going Saturday with 21 first-half points, going 3 of 5 from three-point range and 6 of 6 at the free-throw line. UCA was 10 of 11 at the line in the half and shot 59.4 percent from the field.

Howard's long three at the buzzer gave the Bears their biggest lead of the half at 54-30. Four different Bears hit three-pointers in the first seven minutes of the game and freshman center Hayden Koval hit a three-pointer, a dunk and blocked four shots in the opening four minutes. The Demons were within 23-18 at the midway point of the half but the Bears outscored them 31-12 the rest of the way to grab the 24-point halftime lead, their largest of the season.

In the second half, NSU's 6-foot-8, 250-pound junior center Ishmael Lane, kept the Demons from getting completely blown out, scoring 26 of his team-high 28 points in the final 20 minutes, going 11 of 16 from the field and 5 of 6 from the line for the day. The Demons shot 56.7 percent from the field in the second half but never got closer than 14 points as the Bears found ways to simultaneously score and run time off the clock.

UCA senior Mathieu Kamba finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, while freshman point guard DeAndre Jones had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists and went 2 of 3 from three-point range. Koval fouled out but finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in 20 minutes of action. Senior Ethan Lee, in his second game back from injury, had 8 points and 3 rebounds.

Howard, UCA's career leading scorer and three-point shooter, finished the two-game week with 72 points and made 9 of 14 from beyond the arc.

"I thought he had a really good first half,' Pennell said, "but I didn't think in the second half his teammates got him open enough. We've got to work on that a little bit. But I thought he played a good floor game and took really good shots for the most part. He's such a tough cover for the other team, that he opens up his teammates just by being on the floor.

"And you (Hayden) get a three, a dunk and two blocked shots, he kind of showed everything he can do in about the first two minutes. I wish he had not gotten in foul trouble, it would have been fun to see what else he could have done today. But in the second half, he hit a big three in the corner that I thought kind of broke their back, when they were making a little bit of a run. I thought he came back with just great energy and attention to detail. We're awful proud to have him on this team.' 

The Bears have an open date Wednesday before traveling to Hammond, La., next Saturday to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lions.