HAMMOND, La. _ A furious rally took too much out of the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Wednesday night as they fell 69-57 to the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in Southland Conference action at the University Center.

UCA (3-12, 2-5) overcame a 10-point deficit to tie the game at 57-57 with 3:29 remaining on a three-point play by senior guard Rylan Bergersen. But the Bears would not score again as the Lions (5-11, 3-4) finished the game on a 12-0 run to break the seventh-place tie with the Bears.

The Bears had 19 turnovers in the game, including three in the final stretch where they also missed three shots and committed three fouls. 

"That is basketball, that's how it is sometimes,' said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "And despite that, and despite how poorly we played, especially in the first half, we had our chances. We fought back and tied the game and then we just went away from what we were doing to get to that spot. It will be a learning lesson. 

"We still have a lot of things in front of us, a lot of season to go, and a lot of improvement to make. We're going to do it. It would be nice if we did it a little bit faster, but we're going to stay positive and keep moving forward from this. And hopefully learn from it.'

The Bears turned the ball over 10 times in the first half _ three times in the opening 1:30 _ and trailed 37-30 at the half. Down by as much as seven points in the early going, sophomore guard Collin Cooper scored four straight points to tie it at 18-18 with 9:45 left. Despite senior guard Keon Clergeot picking up three first-half fouls, the Lions pushed their lead out to nine points before Jared Chatham's jumper pulled the Bears within seven at the break. U

UCA shot 48 percent from the field and held SLU to just 39 percent in the opening 20 minutes, but the Bears were just 4 of 10 at the free-throw line while the Lions were 8 of 11.

For the game, UCA held SLU to 38.6-percent shooting but did allow seven three-pointers and 18 (of 25) at the free-throw line.

"Our defense in the half court was really solid. They didn't shoot a very good percentage,' said Boone. "But we must made a lot of mistakes with the ball. And it's an issue where it's almost like we need a timeout every time we come down the floor. When we tell the guys exactly what to do, they were pretty good. But we'd do something that was good and then we'd go away from it. 

"We challenged the guys, they have to take more ownership in what we're doing on the floor. They're depending a little too much on us instructing them every time down the floor. The game of basketball is not that way. It can't be that way. That's football, that's not basketball.'

Bergersen led the Bears with 13 points, while Cooper added 10 points in his first start since the 2019-20 season and just his second game back from injury this season. Cooper tied the game first at 54-54 with consecutive three-pointers with 6:26 remaining. Junior SK Shittu had six points and a career-high 10 rebounds for the Bears, who were just 8 of 14 at the free-throw line.

SLU had four in double figures, led by Isiah Kirby with 17 points (3 threes) and Clergeot with 15, including a 7-of-8 performance at the line.

UCA returns home to host the Northwestern State Demons at 4 p.m. Saturday.