LOUISVILLE, Ky. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears return to the "Power 5" portion of their schedule when they face the Louisville Cardinals at 6 p.m. (CT) Wednesday from the KFC YUM! Center.

The Bears will face their second team from the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, after the Pitt Panthers, and their third of five Power 5 opponents on the 2018-19 schedule. The Bears (3-4) and Cardinals (5-2) will meet for the first time in school history.

UCA is coming off a 78-65 victory over in-state rival Little Rock a week ago in the Farris Center. Louisville beat Seton Hall 70-65 last Saturday in South Orange, New Jersey in its first true road game of the season. The Cardinals are 4-0 at home this season, and a remarkable 77-5 against non-conference opponents in the KFC YUM! Center, winning 33 of their past 35.

"Our approach in these games it to go and play well,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell, who has never shied away from elite competition in his four-plus seasons at UCA. "You always want to try to win the game and you want to give yourself a chance. They are difficult games, But what you want out of them as much as anything is to play long stretches of good basketball.

"And if you do that, you're moving toward your goal, which is getting better. And last week, that was the biggest thing I took out of the Little Rock game, we got better last week. We got better in our practices and it showed in the game. I'm happy with the way the team is coming around. Guys are starting to kind of assume their roles. We're playing well together, we've got a lot of good balance. '

The Bears are led in scoring by sophomore point guard DeAndre Jones, who averages 14.7 points per game, but also have three others (Eddy Kayouloud, Hayden Koval, Thatch Unruh) averaging in double figures. Jones is coming off his third consecutive career high after scoring 19 at Troy, 22 at Saint Louis and 23 against Little Rock. He is also UCA's leader in assists per game (4.29), which ranks fifth in the Southland Conference. 

Louisville's top offensive threat is senior forward Jordan Nwora, who averages 16.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game as the only Cardinal with a double-figure scoring average. The Cardinals, who upset No. 8 Michigan State back on Nov. 27, are averaging 83.1 points per game, with nearly half of those coming off the bench. Louisville had a school-record 63 bench points in a 104-54 win over Southern last month.

"Louisville is a very good basketball team, as you would imagine, even with the turmoil they've gone through in the last year,' said Pennell. "Places like that, they really don't rebuild, they just reload. And they've already done a fantastic job of getting some grad transfers in there and getting some guy who maybe sat the bench for them last year to come forward and become really good players for them. So we have our work cut out for us there.'

The Bears made 10 three-pointers in their last outing, hitting double figures in three-pointers for the fourth time this season. UCA's season high was 11 threes against Troy. For the season, the Bears are shooting 39.3 percent from beyond the arc, second in the SLC. Freshman Eddy Kayouloud (46.9 percent) and Jones (46.7) are UCA's top perimeter shooters so far this season.

"DeAndre has been outstanding the last week and a half of basketball,' said Pennell. "He is really leading our team and is playing some outstanding basketball. And we have some others who have done really well, too, but I'm extremely pleased with DeAndre.'

Wednesday's game is the first of five consecutive road games for the Bears. UCA plays at Little Rock on Saturday, then after a week of final exams, travels to New Mexico (Dec. 16), Indiana (Dec. 19) and Oklahoma State (Dec. 21).

"I was really excited about last week and the way we played against Little Rock,' said Pennell. "I thought we showed some toughness, I thought we showed some resolve. Just thought it was an overall good team performance. So we feel like that was a big win for us, and obviously we've got them coming up again on Saturday. And we know we have a very tough road over the next two weeks with our schedule. But these games makes us battle-tested and that's a good thing.'