ABILENE, Texas _ A hot-shooting second half got the University of Central Arkansas Bears close Saturday afternoon but the Abilene Christian Wildcats held on for a 75-70 victory in Southland Conference action at Moody Coliseum.

The Bears (10-19, 9-9), fighting for a spot in the 2020 Southland Conference Tournament, erased most of a 15-point halftime deficit by shooting a blistering 65.2 percent from the field in the second half, including 6 of 13 from three-point range. But even season-high 54.5-percent shooting for the day was not enough to overcome 27 turnovers that the second-place Wildcats turned into 36 points.

"They're a great team, they're good at forcing turnovers,' said UCA interim head coach Anthony Boone. "They are very active and they put a lot of pressure on their opponents. And we just weren't tough enough for the most part, especially in the first half. The second half we played with a lot better effort but it just wasn't enough.'

The Bears had four starters in double figures, led by junior guard Rylan Bergersen with 24 points, with 20 of those coming in the second half. Junior center Hayden Koval added 16 points and 5 blocked shots, while junior point guard DeAndre Jones scored 14 points, pulled down 7 rebounds and handed out 11 assists. Redshirt freshman Jaxson Baker made a pair of UCA's seven three pointers and added 10 points.

The Bears, who lost in overtime to the Wildcats last month, cut the margin to 71-68 heading into the final minute but the Wildcats pushed it back to five points with a pair of free throws with 51.6 remaining. Bergersen hit twice at the line with 41.3 left but Coryon Mason scored for ACU and UCA misfired on its final chance.

"We challenged the guys (in the second half), that the effort just wasn't very good,' said Boone. "We were lucky to only be down 15 at the half. But we said, we can still have a chance to win this game, but our effort has to pick up a lot, we have to play a lot tougher.'

"And we did do that in the second half. We still turned the ball over some, some were silly turnovers and some were aggressive, which are OK. But we have to take that effort that we had in the second half, the physicalness that we played with and the tenacity, and we have to put two halves together. And we haven't done that quite yet.'

The Bears have two regular-season games remaining, at Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday and at home for Senior Day next Saturday against Northwestern State.