CONWAY, Ark._ The University of Central Arkansas Bears closed the non-conference season with a rousing 119-47 victory over Champion Christian on Friday afternoon at the Farris Center.

UCA (3-10) scored a season high in points and had its second-largest margin of victory in school history, trailing only a 142-65 win over Philander Smith way back in 1990.

Graduate forward Jared Chatham put in a season-high 18 points to lead a season-best seven Bears in double figures, including all five starters. UCA shot 59 percent overall from the field and made 11 three-pointers, following up their season high of 12 on Wednesday at Texas A&M.  The Bears also had a season-high 29 assists, including career highs of nine for freshman Ibbe Klintman and 7 for freshman Camren Hunter.

"We were playing the right way,' said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "And it's easy to come out when we're up big like that and start playing kind of crazy, and our guys fought off that temptation and played well. That's a sign of maturity, and hopefully we can carry that on into some games when we get a decent lead where we'll continue to do that.'

The game was tied at 16-16 with 12:30 play before the Bears ran away from the Tigers. UCA scored 10 consecutive points to take the lead for good and closed the first half on a 28-0 run over the final six minutes. Freshman guard Camren Hunter had a double-double by halftime with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Collin Cooper made three of UCA's six three-pointers and had nine points at the break.

UCA shot 53.5 percent overall and 35.3 percent (6 of 17) from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes. The Tigers made five three-pointers to keep it close early but could not keep up the rest of the way.

The Bears then outscored the Tigers 60-22 in the second half, shooting 65 percent from the field, with numerous slam dunks. UCA ended up scoring 70 points in the paint, 25 points off turnovers and 50 points from the bench. All 11 players who saw action for the Bears scored, including career highs from freshman center Churchill Bounds (12 points, 8 rebounds) and freshman guard Brendan Simmons, who came off the bench to hit 3 of 3 from three-point range for a career-high nine points. 

"That was great to see,' said Boone. "All our guys that got in showed that same maturity. They kept up the defensive intensity, they kept up the assault on the glass with rebounds, and kept up the unselfish play, getting each other involved.

"That's the tendency that guys have, that's the tendency that coaches have.  We want to tell guys to slow down, but knowing our guys, we know we'll lose our intensity on the defensive end if we tell them to do that. So we wanted to stay in attack mode and to continue to push the lead, and we did that.'

UCA completely dominated the rebounding against the smaller Tigers, finishing with as many offensive rebounds (20) as Champion Christian had total (20). UCA tallied a season-high 60 rebounds. Hunter had a double-double by halftime and finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Every UCA player had at least two rebounds.

The Bears got a combined 61 points from freshmen, rather it be true freshmen or second-year freshmen. Hunter had 17 points, followed by Elias Cato (13), Bounds, Klintman (10) and Simmons.

UCA now turns its attention to its first season in ASUN Conference play, beginning Tuesday, Jan. 4 at Richmond, Ky., taking on the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. (CT) at Alumni Coliseum.