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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears have already faced the defending NCAA national champion Baylor Bears in this young season. 

They will add another Top 10 team to that list on Wednesday night when they take on the No. 9/10 Arkansas Razorbacks at 7 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena.

After not playing for 73 years, the Bears and Razorbacks will be meeting for the second consecutive year on Wednesday. Arkansas recently relaxed a long-standing policy of not playing in-state schools and a year ago UCA was the first Arkansas men's basketball program to compete against the Razorbacks since 1950.

"It's very good for the state of Arkansas,' said UCA head coach Anthony Boone, a West Helena, Ark., native who had a 4-4 record against Arkansas as an player at Ole Miss from 1994-98. "Win, lose or draw, with either team, it's still great. There are a lot of people here in Arkansas... and I understand it, I was born and raised in Arkansas... that are excited about the Razorbacks, and people are talking a lot about basketball in the state. 

"And that's what's really exciting. That's what's really great about the University of Arkansas reaching out and playing us and playing Little Rock.'

Arkansas, which would advance all the way to the Elite 8 last spring, beat UCA 100-75 last December in front of a covid-reduced crowd of 4,189 at Bud Walton. The Bears hung close through the first half, trailing only 41-35 at halftime, by shooting 46.9 percent from the field and making five three-pointers. But the Razorbacks shot a blistering 60.5 percent from the field in the second half and outscored the Bears 59-40 to grab the victory.
UCA had four players in double figures, led by guard Rylan Bergersen and DeAndre Jones with 13 points each. Both of those student-athletes transferred out after the season for their extra senior seasons. UCA does return two of the double-figure players in graduates Jared Chatham (10 points, 10 rebounds) and SK Shittu (11 points, 8 rebounds) from last year's matchup.

"(The experience) will help some of our guys, but we don't have a whole lot of guys returning that played (in that game),' said Boone. We have a few. One of our young men from Fayetteville (Collin Cooper), didn't get to play because he was hurt, so I'm sure he'll be excited for this game.'

UCA also has a junior transfer guard/forward Darious Hall of Little Rock, who played for the Razorbacks as a freshman before transferring to DePaul. Hall has started all seven games for the Bears and is averaging 9.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists, despite only playing six minutes against VMI last week due to back spasms. Hall, from Mills University Studies High School, was the ASUN Conference Player of the Week after his 19-point, 16-rebound performance in UCA's win over Oral Roberts on Nov. 20.

Arkansas is 6-0 on the season, with quality wins last week over Kansas State and Cincinnati in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo.  The Razorbacks beat Penn 76-60 on Sunday at Bud Walton, where they are 4-0 this year and were 16-1 a year ago.

UCA dropped three games last week at the UNO Classic at Lakefront Arena, losing to host New Orleans, VMI and Presbyterian on three consecutive days.

"I think we've played OK,' said Boone. "We've certainly had some stretches in games. And the game we won against ORU, I thought we played pretty good. But I thought there was another game that we lost that we actually played pretty good basketball for a longer period of time. And that's what we've been measuring it by.' 

UCA continues a three-game in-state run at Arkansas State on Saturday. The Bears then take a week off for final exams before hosting the Little Rock Trojans on Saturday, Dec. 14 at the Farris Center in just their second home game of the season.