NORMAN, Okla. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears put together a solid second half Saturday but had too big a deficit to overcome in an 87-66 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The Bears (5-6) trailed 52-30 at halftime after the Sooners (8-3) shot lights out on their home court. But UCA outscored Oklahoma 36-35 in the second half, made seven three-pointers and got to within 13 points at one point before running out of steam.

"The second half was a lot better," said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "The first half we came out pretty flat. I think our effort was just not very good, our focus wasn't quite there. And I thought we were pretty uncharacteristic, more so in this game than I've seen probably in a while. And we addressed that at halftime and the guys really responded."

After shooting just 38.7 percent in the first half and going 4 of 17 from beyond the arc, the Bears made seven threes and shot 52 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes. Junior guard Collin Cooper made all four of his three-pointers in the second half and finished with 12 points.

"It was great to see us (making some shots)," said Boone. "And i think that stemmed from us just playing harder and having more confidence just because we were doing things we were supposed to be doing on the floor. Defensively we were a little better, although they still shot the ball pretty good and got some things that we didn't want them to get. But we were playing better overall and that just seems to bleed over to guys when they are shooting the ball, too." 

The Bears cut their deficit to 13 points at 72-59 with 8:31 to play on V.J. Reeves' three-pointer, his second of the game. But the Sooners quickly pushed it back out to 20-plus points to improve to 5-1 on their home court this season.

Hunter, a sophomore guard who was named the ASUN Conference Player of the Week on Monday, led the Bears with 18 points and seven rebounds. Senior Eddy Kayouloud added 11 points and nine rebounds. Jacob Groves made four three-pointers and led all scorers with 26 for the Sooners. Grant Sherfield, OU's leading scorer on the season, added 17 points as the Sooners scored 48 points in the paint.

"Coop came out and I was glad that he still looked to take shots in the second half," said Boone. "And he knocked down some big shots. And for awhile there we put a little bit of a scare into the Sooners as we were closing the lead a little bit."

UCA faces a quick turnaround, facing the Little Rock Trojans on Tuesday night at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. The Bears beat the Trojans 82-71 in their first meeting on Nov. 14 in Conway. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.