BEAUMONT, Texas _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears will take a two-game Southland Conference winning streak on a two-game SLC road trip this week, beginning Wednesday night when they face the Lamar Cardinals in Beaumont, Texas.

The Bears, coming off victories over Northwestern State on the road and Southeastern Louisiana at home, will face the Cardinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Montagne Center and follow that up with a matchup with the McNeese Cowboys at 3 p.m. Saturday in Lake Charles, La.

UCA, 7-15 overall, improved to 6-5 in league play with Saturday's 79-71 comeback win over the Demons at NSU's Prather Coliseum. The Bears trailed by 16 points at halftime before outscoring the Demons 52-28 in the second half. UCA had a similar second-half comeback in its previous 88-68 win over SLU, outscoring the Lions 48-30 in the final 20 minutes.

The Bears have owned the second half in their past two games, with a 100-58 scoring advantage.

Wednesday's game will be only meeting of the regular season for the Bears and Cardinals. UCA won last year's game in 75-68 at the Farris Center, shooting 53 percent from the field and holding Lamar to 38 percent. The Bears made 12 three-pointers and tallied 23 assists on 26 made baskets.

The Cardinals (11-11, 5-6) lead the overall series with the Bears 12-7, but the most of that came in the first fives years of the series when Lamar won the first 10 meetings between the teams. After last year's victory, UCA has won three straight and four of the past five matchups.

Lamar is coming off a 96-91 win at McNeese last Saturday in which sophomore guard Davion Buster made 11 three-pointers and scored 39 points to earn SLC Player of the Week honors. The Cardinals made 14 threes and shot 50.8 percent overall to hand the Cowboys (7-6) just their third home loss of the season.

Lamar is led in scoring by senior guard T.J. Atwood, who averages 15.8 points per game, followed by Buster at 15.1. The Cardinals have four in double figures and one more averaging 9.9 points per game but are just 10th in the SLC in scoring at 71.8 points per game. UCA averages 75.2 points per game (8th) and is led by junior guards Rylan Bergersen (15.0) and DeAndre Jones (14.2).

Sophomore forward Eddy Kayouloud (12.7) and junior center Hayden Koval (11.1) are also in double figures, while Koval is tops in rebounding at 7.3 per game. The Bears dominated the boards against Northwestern State on Saturday by a 51-36 margin, including 25 offensive rebounds.

The games will be carried on The Bear 91.3 with Justin Acri.