CONWAY, Ark. _ One team will leave the Farris Center on Saturday having solidified its position in the upper third of the Southland Conference standings. The other will fall back to .500 six games into the conference race.
The University of Central Arkansas Bears (8-10) and the Nicholls Colonels (10-8) bring identical 3-2 conference records into Saturday's 4 p.m. showdown. UCA, after losing its SLC opener at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, has won three of its past four games, with two of those on the road at Southeastern Louisiana and at Incarnate Word.
The Colonels, who can claim a win over preseason and perennial league favorite Stephen F. Austin among their three league victories, is coming off a somewhat surprising 11-point loss at eighth-place McNeese State on Wednesday in Lake Charles, La.
The Colonels, who tied SLU for the SLC regular-season championship a year ago with a 15-3 record, have won three consecutive games against the Bears. However, Nicholls is just 2-8 on the road this season, while UCA is 5-1 at home at the Farris Center, with the lone loss coming at the hands of first-place Sam Houston State (4-0) on Jan. 9.
The Bears have put together two of their best all-around games in their last two outings, beating Lamar 75-68 at home on Jan. 12 and then taking down Incarnate Word 77-60 in San Antonio on Wednesday night. Against Lamar, UCA shot 53.1 percent overall and went 12 of 23 (52.2 percent) from three-point range. Defensively, the Bears held the Cardinals to just 37.9-percent overall shooting and only eight field goals in the second half.
Against UIW, UCA shot 52.2 percent in the second half and outscored UIW 44-31, aided by a 21-1 run midway through the half. The Cardinals shot just 42.3 percent from the field and committed 17 turnovers.
The Bears are the second-best three-point shooting team in the SLC at 37-percent, while the Colonels are No. 2 in defending against the three-pointer, allowing opponents to shoot just 31.7 percent from beyond the arc. Two of the best free-throw shooter in the conference will be on display. Nicholls' Gavin Peppers leads the league and is second in the nation at 94.7 percent. UCA sophomore point guard DeAndre Jones is fourth in the SLC at 83.1 percent.
Jones is also tied for first in the SLC in assists (4.7 per game), while the Colonels' Kevin Johnson is fourth (4.6) and first in assist-to-turnover ratio. Nicholls' Daniel Regis and UCA's Hayden Koval are ranked first and fourth in the league in blocked shots, respectively. Koval set the UCA single-season record for blocked shots last year and is now just 17 behind Durrell Nevels for the career lead. Senior Thatch Unruh has moved into sixth place on the all-time three-pointer list with 153, just five behind fifth place George Sitkowski.
UCA continues its homestand on Wednesday, hosting the New Orleans Privateers at 7 p.m.
