CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears got the big three-pointer they needed to send the game to overtime Saturday but ended up dropping a 74-66 decision to the Northwestern State Demons in non-conference play at the Farris Center.

UCA junior Masai Olowokere nailed a three-pointer from the right wing with 0.2 seconds remaining that, after a lengthy officials' review, sent the game to overtime. The Demons (4-2) then outscored the Bears (3-3) 10-2 in the extra period.

UCA shot just 34.7 percent for the game, including a 6-of-26 performance from the three-point line. Three of UCA's top four leading scorers on the season combined to go 10 of 48 from the field. NSU did not shoot much better, hitting 35.1 percent overall but did make seven threes and 15 free throws. 

"It was a pretty ugly game, I would say, on both sides" said Boone. "I read out the other team's stats (to our team) and said it's hard to win like that. And our guys thought it was our stats. But they did, they won with those stats.

"And the key I thought was they got some timely offensive rebounds. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. We did, too, but they seemed to get them at the right moments. That was the difference in the game."

The Bears got a big boost off the bench from sophomore center Churchill Bounds, who had a career-high 12 points and 5 rebounds in just 17 minutes of action. Olowokere led the Bears with a career-high 16 points and was 7 of 9 from the field. Bounds finished 5 of 7. The rest of the Bears were a combined 13 of 58. 

"Certainly, he's been growing," Boone said of Bounds. "Week by week he does a little bit more and we've found more and more confidence in him. Hopefully he'll continue on that trend. He has been improving and gained confidence in himself and we've gained a lot of confidence in him, and his teammates have, also.

"Masai was very good for us, also very good on the glass. He got a number of rebounds for us, tough rebounds. We need somebody else to step up and do the same thing. He and Eddy got a lot of rebounds but we needed maybe one or two more guys to kind of shoulder that."

The Demons led 30-27 at halftime, despite shooting 33.3 percent from the field. UCA then outscored NSU 37-34 in the second half, capped by Olowokere's three-pointer. The Bears trailed 64-61 with 24.1 seconds left but Eddy Kayouloud was fouled with 3.3 seconds left. After missing the first free throw, he intenionally missed the second and the ball ended up in Olowokere's hands. 

He nailed the shot, his second three-pointer of the night, before a long review confirmed it. From there, the Bears made the first field goal of the overtime by freshman Johannes Kirsipuu but it was also their only field goal in eight attempts.

"We got off to a good start (in overtime), then we missed a couple of shots around the basket," Boone said. "We just couldn't finish and they could. And a couple of possessions in overtime when we were trying to make a comeback they got offensive rebounds and that just sealed the game for them." 

UCA continues play in the Central Arkansas Classic at 3:30 Sunday, facing Idaho State, which lost to Bethune-Cookman earlier Saturday.