NEW ORLEANS, La. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears are tied for third place in the Southland Conference men's basketball standings and will try to remain near the top when they hit the road Wednesday to take on the New Orleans Privateers at Lakefront Arena.

    The Bears are just 4-11 overall after a tough non-conference schedule but stand a program-best 3-1 in the league after Saturday's 79-69 home victory over the McNeese Cowboys. The Privateers, the SLC preseason favorite, are just 4-10 overall and a league-worst 0-4 in conference play.

    "They are very tough, they're physical and they play solid defense,' said interim head coach Anthony Boone. "And they assault the glass. So we're going to have to play really physical and we have to be strong. We'll have a game plan like we do with other teams, we'll try to go inside, we'll play solid defense, but it's really going to come down to a physical battle for us and we'll have to get ready for that.'

    The Bears won their third league game at the Farris Center on Saturday by hitting a season-high 14 three-pointers and utilizing a defense that held the top-shooting team in the league in check for most of the night. The Cowboys entered the game with a 52-percent shooting average, shot 41.7 percent against the Bears, including 36.7 percent in the first half when UCA built a 14-point halftime lead.

    UCA had four players in double figures, led by junior point guard DeAndre Jones, who was playing just his second game since returning from injury and just his seventh of the season. Jones went 6 of 7 from three-point range and 8 of 8 at the free-throw line for 26 points and added a season-high 9 assists. Senior Aaron Weidenaar, junior Jared Chatham and redshirt freshman Jaxson Baker had 11 points each, with Baker and Weidenaar hitting three three-pointers each.

    The Privateers lost 87-68 to No. 1 Stephen F. Austin on Saturday in New Orleans. Senior 6-foot-4 guard Bryson Robinson, who is third in the SLC in scoring average (17.4 points per game) scored 31 points against the Lumberjacks. Robinson is also one of the top free-throw shooters in the nation, hitting 96.5 percent at the line (55 of 57), and also leads the Privateers with 41 three-pointers and shoots 37 percent from beyond the arc.

    As a team, UNO shoots 33.6 percent from three-point range, good for fifth in the conference, and leads the league in free-throw percentage at 78.0 percent.

    Jones, a 5-11 guard from Boise, Idaho, broke the UCA career assists record against McNeese, which now stands at 350 in 75 career games (4.6 per game average). Hayden Koval, a 7-0 junior center, is the UCA record holder for blocked shots with 232 and added three more against the Cowboys. Koval blocked seven shots against the Privateers in last year's matchup in Conway, which UCA won 76-71 behind a 22-point effort by Koval.