CONWAY, Ark. _ It took an extra five minutes of action and a pair of double-doubles Wednesday but the University of Central Arkansas Bears are 1-0 in Southland Conference play after a much-needed 88-82 overtime victory over the UIW Cardinals at the Farris Center.

Sophomore Eddy Kayouloud led the UCA offense with 26 points and 13 rebounds, while junior center Hayden Koval added 12 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. Junior Jared Chatham came up big with a career-high 23 points and eight rebounds in 38 minutes of action in just his second start of the season. 

The Bears (2-9, 1-0), who entered the game 0-2 in overtime games this season, had to overcome an eight-point halftime deficit and did it by outscoring the Cardinals (3-8, 0-1) 39-31 in the second half. Chatham, who scored UCA's first eight points of the game, had UCA's final three points of regulation and UCA needed all of them as UIW's Keaston Willis nailed a three-pointer with 3.5 seconds remaining to tie it at 72-72.

But the Bears never trailed in overtime as junior guard Rylan Bergersen made a layup in the opening seconds, Aaron Weidenaar made a free throw and Chatham nailed a three-pointer to push UCA's lead to 78-72 at the 3:12 mark. UIW would get within four points at 78-74 but the Bears went 9 of 11 at the free-throw line in the extra period to seal their first victory since Nov. 7 and first for interim head coach Anthony Boone.

"It was hard fought,' said Boone, who is subbing for head coach Russ Pennell, who is taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. "We started out the game really well, we had a good game plan. We kind of shied away from it and gave them a chance, turned the ball over some. But we played down two point guards today and that made it tough at times. 

Three Cardinals fouled out and one player was lost to an ankle injury in the first half. Willis led UIW with 28 points, hitting five three-pointers, in 43 minutes of action. UIW shot just 40 percent from the field and went 8 of 29 (27.6 percent) from three-point range. Koval played much of the second half with four fouls but never fouled out in 37 minutes of action.

"We had to have him and he knew it and he knew he was important for the game, and he ended with a double-double,' said Boone of the 7-foot junior. "Hayden is a pretty smart guy and when he has four fouls, he's not going to go out and try to get another one, although he's still going to play aggressive. He blocks shots, that's what he does, and we need him to do that. He's one of the best in the nation at doing that and he really anchors our defense. And we outmatched them a little bit with out size and we were able to force it inside a few more times than we normally do.'

Boone said the brightest spot for the Bears was the grit and determination it took to win in overtime.

"Our guys just fought hard,' he said. "Just like at Pepperdine (on Saturday), there were a couple of times guys could have hung their heads, and we had a couple of opportunities this game to do that. But the guys wanted to keep going, keep fighting, stay engaged, stay in the game and get the intensity back up. And (they) had a hard-fought victory.'

The Bears outrebounded the Cardinals 50-35, including 13 on the offensive end. That helped overcome 22 turnovers and 27.3-percent shooting from three-point range. Weidenaar, UCA's lone senior, came off the bench and hit 2 of 5 from beyond the arc to finish with a season-high 10 points. Chatham went 10 of 14 from the field and 1 of 1 from three-point range to break his career scoring mark by seven. 

"We were hungry today,' said Chatham. "And we just have to keep this going in every game from here on out, especially in conference. It's a new season now, the record is 0-0... well 1-0 now. We've just got to keep it going.'

UCA, which played just its third home game of the season Wednesday, continues its SLC homestand at 1 p.m. Saturday, hosting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.