CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears were ice cold from three-point range Wednesday night and dropped a 76-72 decision to the McNeese State Cowboys in Southland Conference action at the Farris Center.

The Bears (13-13, 7-6), the top three-point shooters in the conference at 38 percent for the year, were just 5 of 28 for a season-low 17.9 percent. They shot 37.5 percent overall, hitting 30 of 80 attempts. 

Defensively, the Bears were not much better, allowing the Cowboys to make eight three-pointers and shoot nearly 50 percent from the field. The Cowboys, who had lost four of their past five games, jumped out to a 43-28 halftime lead and never trailed, although the Bears got within one point at 69-68 on Thatch Unruh's three-pointer with 3:05 to play. But the Bears could get now closer and lost for just the second time in their past five games.

"We didn't shoot the ball very well, but we didn't defend very well and we didn't rebound very well, we didn't very well anything,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "The disappointing thing for me is this... I don't know sometimes the mindset of young people anymore, because we've been practicing extremely well leading up to today's game. But there can be a little bit of an overconfidence playing at home sometimes. And I think sometimes we do that.

"We almost sometimes have an edge on the road because we have a healthier respect for what is going on. You can't dig yourself that big a hole. We were down 15 at the half and it was just pedestrian, our effort. I was disappointed in that. But we did fight back. You know the last 10 minutes we kind of found a group of guys and kind of got it going for a little bit. Unfortunately, when you're in that position, you have to play almost perfect to finish it off.'

UCA senior Mathieu Kamba had his third double-double of the season, and eighth of his career, scoring 25 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Freshman center Hayden Koval also had a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while senior guard Jordan Howard had 14 points and Unruh 11. Howard, the career leader in three-pointers, was just 2 of 11 from beyond the arc, while Unruh finished 3 of 9.

"We had some good looks tonight,' said Pennell. "Sometimes the ball doesn't go in the basket. And that's what I'm trying to tell our guys, you can still win games on the defensive end. Virginia scores 45 a game and they win. You can do it. But it's got to become a priority. I honestly believe we're in a situation defensively that until we have a turnover of our roster, we're not going to be great defensively.

"And that's me being very honest. I think we're good offensively, I don't think we're very good defensively. And when you're working on it as much as we are, spending probably 60 percent of our practice on that, maybe we just can't do it. I think we just need to play defense good for stretches. And we certainly didn't do that the first half.'

Freshman point guard DeAndre Jones had 6 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals for the Bears, who scored 44 points in the paint but just 15 from beyond the arc. 

"I thought, especially early in the game, we had great looks,' said Pennell. "And then I thought we kind of started pressing a little bit. Jordan usually won't go 2 for 11, Thatch won't go 3 for 9. Your two three-point shooters go 5 for 20, that's going to be pretty difficult. But that's not what cost us. That aided in our loss, but the biggest thing was defensively we just weren't good enough.

"Mathieu is playing knowing that he doesn't have many games left, and I appreciate that. I thought he was a bright spot tonight. Both he and Hayden rebounded pretty well, and DeAndre had 10 rebounds, too. (Hayden) really pursued the ball well. I thought tonight he got some really tough rebounds. He's growing leaps and bounds. 

"On the glass, that was decent effort. But we just didn't get some stops when we needed them most. We had dug ourselves such a hole, that the margin of error is so skinny that it's pretty difficult.'

UCA hosts league-leader Nicholls State at 3:30 Saturday afternoon in a doubleheader with the Sugar Bears. The Colonels beat the Bears 86-79 in the first meeting in Thibodaux, La., on Jan. 13.