NATCHITOCHES, La. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears picked an ideal time to win their first road game of the season on Saturday.

Fueled by another dominant second half and a huge effort on the offensive boards, the Bears beat Northwestern State 79-71 at Prather Coliseum to move in front of the Demons in the Southland Conference standings. UCA won its second straight game and improved to 7-15 overall and 6-5 in league play. Tied for sixth place with UCA going into the game, NSU dropped to 8-12 and 5-6.

The Bears, trailing 43-37 at halftime, opened the second half with an impressive 14-0 run and held the Demons scoreless for nearly six minutes. UCA eventually outscored NSU 52-28 in the second half, its highest scoring half of the season and largest halftime deficit overcome. UCA entered the game 0 for 11 on the road this season but thanks to one of its best halves of the season, ended that skid in style Saturday.

The Bears have now outscored their last two opponents _ victories over Southeastern Louisiana and NSU _ 100-58 in the second half. UCA shot 44 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes on Saturday, hitting five three pointers and 15 (of 23) free throws. The Demons, who were at 56.7 percent shooting in the first half, dropped off dramatically to 33.3 percent in the second.

"We just said, hey, this is our game if we decide to play,' said UCA interim head coach Anthony Boone. "If we pick up our effort and our intensity, we'll win this game. That's what we told them. But we did have confidence that we could come back. We just challenged the guys and said, look, we're not playing the way that we're capable of playing. We've got to come out and establish ourselves defensively, in the paint and in the rebounding.

"And that's what happened in the second half. We played much better defensively, we had a lot better effort, a lot better urgency and we really, really assaulted the glass. And that was the key.'

NSU made 13 three-pointers, including five each by Chudier Bile and Trenton Massner, but also lost the rebound battle by a wide margin of 51-36. UCA pulled down a season-high 25 offensive rebounds, just 11 less than NSU's total for the game. UCA junior guard Rylan Bergersen had his first career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds, including nine on the offensive end. Sophomore Eddy Kayouloud scored 18 points and had 9 rebounds, as did junior center Hayden Koval. 

UCA junior guard DeAndre Jones chipped in 13 points and sophomore center SK Shittu had a career-high 12, including 10 in the first half to help the Bears stay within striking distance of the hot-shooting Demons (seven three-pointers).

"We certainly didn't come out very well,' said Boone. 'And fortunately SK provided a really nice spark for us there in that first half. We would have been way out of it if not for him.'

During the scoring run that opened the second half, Jones nailed a pair of three-pointers, redshirt freshman Jaxson Baker added another and Koval added a pair of free throws as the Demons missed their first seven shots of the half. UCA tied it on a Bergersen three-pointer at the 13:42 mark. The Bears took their final lead on a Kayouloud three-point play with 4:36 left and never relinquished it.

"I think they understood that how we played in the first half was not characteristic of how we've been at any point in this season,' said Boone. "And they really wanted to turn it around.' 

Bile and Massner had 19 points each for NSU, which had 18 turnovers and was just 4 of 9 at the free-throw line. UCA went 20 of 31, with Jones going 5 of 6.
 
The Bears continue their three-game road swing at Lamar on Wednesday and McNeese on Saturday.