CONWAY, Ark. _ The basketball took a back seat to the recognition and celebration of Veteran's Day on Friday night at the Farris Center..
The University of Central Arkansas Bears turned in a workmanlike 107-56 victory over their friends from across town, the Hendrix Warriors in front of a crowd of 1,527 on "Salute to Service Night" in conjunction with the Little Rock Air Force Base. The teams joined in saluting the veterans and active military in attendance and also got to be a part of a halftime ceremony where cadets took their oaths to join the United States Air Force and United States Army.
"I thought that was an incredible opportunity and an incredible experience for our young men," said UCA head coach
Anthony Boone, who has several family members who served in the military. "It was something Coach (Jeff) Price talked about from the time I hired him because he had experienced that at Sinclair College in Ohio.
"And he started working on it as soon as he got hired, and targeted Veteran's Day. And it's something I hope we can continue here. It was great, I've never experienced anything like that, and I'm pretty sure our guys hadn't either. It was amazing, very emotional, and I'm glad we were able to make it happen here and I'm thankful that I and our guys got to watch it."
On the basketball side, UCA (1-1) picked up its first win of the season by getting double-figure scoring from six different players and making 14 three-pointers. UCA also outrebounded the smaller Warriors (0-2) by a 54-28 margin, including 15 offensive rebounds. The Bears scored 48 points in the paint and got 45 points from its bench after playing all 14 players that dressed out.
"I thought it was pretty good, especially defensively," said Boone. "We had a lot of deflections, a lot of near steals. We did force 17 turnovers but we had a lot of near steals, also. I thought our effort on the glass was pretty good. I thought in stretches it wasn't as good as it could have been, but we can do a little bit better than we did."
Junior guard
Masai Olowokere topped the Bears with 14 points, while sophomore guard Camren Hunter and freshman guard Carl Daughtery, Jr., had 13 points each. Junior guard
Collin Cooper and senior forward
Eddy Kayouloud scored 12 point apiece and sophomore forward Ibbe Klintman finished with 11.
The Bears got the 14 three-pointers from seven different players, led by Cooper who went 4 of 8. Hunter went 2 of 2 from beyond the arc, while Olowokere was 2 of 4. Daughtery, a true freshman from Maumelle, Ark. was 2 of 2 from the arc and 4 of 5 overall and added six rebounds and two steals.
UCA shot 56.9 percent from the field for the game and held Hendrix to just 30.6 percent. The Bears outscored the Warriors 50-23 in the first half and 57-33 in the second.
UCA continues its homestand against the Little Rock Trojans at 7 p.m. Monday at the Farris Center before embarking on a two-game trip to Ireland as part of the ASUN/MAC Challenge. The Bears will face Niagara on Nov. 18 and Rider on Nov. 19.Â
