CONWAY, Ark. _ The Farris Center magic continued Saturday for the University of Central Arkansas Bears as they knocked off the first-place Sam Houston State Bearkats 89-82 in Southland Conference action.

The Bears (5-12, 4-2) improved to 5-1 at home this season, and more importantly, 4-0 in home SLC games. UCA won it at the free-throw line Saturday, going 33 for 38 (86.8 percent), including 18 of 21 in the second half as they held off the Bearkats, who entered the game in a three-way tie for first place in the league standings.

The Boise, Idaho duo of juniors DeAndre Jones and Rylan Bergersen combined for 54 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists and made a combined 22 of 26 at the free-throw line. Jones finished with a career-high 33 points, hitting 6 of 11 from three-point range and 13 of 16 from the line. Bergersen, a transfer from BYU, scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half, aided by a 9-of-10 performance at the foul line.

"Rylan really took great shots today,' said UCA interim head coach Anthony Boone. "The threes he took were open. And he's been shooting the ball well the last few days in practice and today in our shootaround, so we figured he'd maybe hit a couple and he did. But he didn't take too many. He did drive to the basket, got to the line and set up other people. He just played a really good overall game on both ends of the floor.'

Jones topped his career high of 29 points set last season at Stephen F. Austin.

"He was pretty good,' said Boone, laughing at the obvious understatement. "I didn't realize he had 33 points. D.J. had a little spill at the end and when we brought him out, I asked how he was doing. He said I'm all right. I said, you're probably not going to go back in the rest of the game but you've done a good job training your proteges. And they did a good job finishing the game. So that was great.'

The Bears and Bearkats, who split their two meetings a year ago, battled throughout with 16 lead changes and nine ties. UCA's largest lead was nine points at halftime (42-33). SHSU regained the lead briefly at the 12:00 mark and the teams then traded advantages for the next six minutes. A three-pointer and a pair of free throws gave the Bearkats a 73-68 lead with 6:00 left but UCA rallied with consecutive three-pointers by Jones.

Sophomore Eddy Kayouloud rebounded his own miss to give the Bears the lead for good with 2:25 remaining. He followed with another rebound basket before Bergersen made 3 of 4 at the line. Freshman Collin Cooper, who drew a big charge with 38.1 seconds left in Jones' place, made four straight at the line and Bergersen closed out the  scoring with two more with 7.5 seconds left.

UCA dominated the boards with 47 rebounds, including 15 on the offensive end. The Bears had five players with at least five rebounds, led by junior center Hayden Koval with nine. UCA also made 10 of 26 from three-point range to help overcome 22 turnovers.

The Bearkats got 20 points from Dainan Swoope and 18 from Chad Bowie. SHSU had nearly as many personal fouls (27) as it had rebounds (28). Bowie and leading scorer Kai Mitchell both fouled out of the game for the Bearkats.

"(We're) certainly proud of how we've played at home,' said Boone. "We'd like to bottle that and take it on the road. We're going to keep working hard and certainly we want to defend home court as much as we can. We try to tell our guys that it's us, we have to bring our own energy, but when our fans are here and they're cheering loud like they were today, it does nothing but help us.'

UCA hosts another of the league leaders, Stephen F. Austin (13-3, 4-1), at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Farris Center.