MEMPHIS, Tenn. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears played the Memphis Tigers even for a half, and a little more, Friday night before dropping their season opener 85-68 at the FedExForum.

The Bears (0-1) held a 42-40 halftime lead over the Tigers, who were playing their fifth game of the season. UCA, which shot 44.4 percent overall from the field, and made 7 of 11 from three-point range, in the first half, went cold in the final 20 minutes. The Bears made just 11 of 32 (34.4 percent) in the second half when the Tigers outscored them 45-26.The Bears forced 20 turnovers but had 30 of their own.

"It's disappointing,' said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "I thought the effort our guys gave the whole game was incredible. I can't be too disappointed in that. That was something I was definitely excited about. But we also shot ourselves in the foot quite a bit.

"And a lot of that is we haven't played yet, and that's not any fault of ours. It's the opponents we had scheduled and the games just couldn't happen. But we have to learn from it, and hopefully we can learn pretty quickly and we can cut out some of those mistakes. We're still going to make mistakes and we're going to continue to turn the ball over, because we want our guys to be aggressive.

"But we have to learn to complete those plays. Hopefully getting a game under our belt will help and we can improve for the next game.'

The Bears were up to the task in the first half, matching Memphis' intensity and ability to push the ball up the floor offensively. The Bears took a 21-17 lead on a three-pointer by senior guard Rylan Bergersen at the midway point of the half. UCA then fell behind by as much as five points before senior guard DeAndre Jones nailed back-to-back three-pointers to tie the game at 32-32. Down 40-36 with 1:55 remaining, 

UCA scored the final six points of the half on another three by Bergersen, a layup by sophomore Khaleem Bennett and a final free throw by Bergersen with just 2.8 seconds remaining, giving UCA its two-point halftime lead.

"Our defense was great in that first half,' said Boone. "They shot under 40 percent from the field, we outrebounded them. We actually outrebounded them for the game. That was something else we wanted to focus on and we did a good job on the glass. Again, I'm excited about those aspects of this game. We certainly have some things to improve on, but the effort our guys gave, that's what I'm most excited about.'

The Bears hung around until the 15:00 mark of the second half with it tied at 50-50, but the Tigers put together a scoring burst that UCA could not match from there. The Tigers outscored the Bears 35-18 the rest of the way, shooting 45.5 percent from the field and hitting 11 of 14 at the free-throw line in the second half.

UCA finished the game with 30 turnovers but out-shot Memphis from three-point range (9 of 19 compared to 9 of 29) and won the rebound battle 39-36.

Bergersen has now scored at least 20 points in four of his past five games dating to last season. He finished 8 of 14 from the field and 4 of 5 from three-point range, and added four rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Jaxson Baker was next with 11 points, all in the first half when he made three three-pointers. Pittsburgh transfer Samson George had 8 points and 10 rebounds in his UCA debut.  

The Bears have a quick turnaround with a matchup at Little Rock at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Jack Stephens Center.