CONWAY, Ark. _ The first meeting between the University of Central Arkansas Bears and the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles went down to the wire Thursday night, with the visiting Eagles pulling out a 95-93 victory in overtime on Scottie Pippen Court at the Farris Center.

A career night from junior forward Eddy Kayouloud and the steady perimeter shooting of sophomore guard Collin Cooper were enough to get the Bears into the extra period. However, a pair of costly turnovers denied the Bears their second overtime victory of the season in as many tries.

Kayouloud, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound forward from Paris, France, had career highs of 34 points and 17 rebounds and shot 15 of 22 (68 percent) from the field, while also handing out three assists. Cooper, a 6-2,190-pound guard from Fayetteville, Ark., continued his hot hand from long range with a career-high six three-pointers, topping his five threes in UCA's last game at Jacksonville on Saturday.

"There were so many plays that we could point to, but that's college basketball,' said a drained UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "I told our guys there were lots of things we could have done better, but overall, the effort was great. I was really proud of them for stepping up and playing better defense in the second half, and also taking control of the glass.

"That was a huge step for us. We've been getting out-rebounded pretty good by a couple of teams here lately, and FGCU has probably the best offensive rebounder in the conference (6-11, 255-pound center Kevin Samuel). And we really smashed them on the glass and I was really proud of our effort.'

The Bears (6-15, 3-5) were still playing without their leading scorer and rebounder in junior Darious Hall, out with a shoulder injury. Kayouloud filled that starting position for the second consecutive game and was nearly unstoppable on the offensive end. He tied his season high of 20 points before halftime, going 9 of 14 from the field. He then went 6 of 8 in the second half before turning it over to Cooper, who hit three three-pointers in a span of 1:30 that gave the Bears an 86-79 lead with 2:05 remaining in regulation.

But the Eagles (14-9, 4-5) fought back behind a 34-point effort from 5-8 guard Tavian Dunn-Martin and sent the game to overtime with a pair of free throws with 25 seconds remaining.

"Eddy has looked good the last few games anyway,' said Boone. "He's been pretty good most games this year, but the last few games he's been really good. And in practice the last couple of days, he's looked like someone playing 2K on a video game. He's just been incredible. So I'm not surprised he came out and had the incredible evening he had. He's been ultra focused. 

"He was very, very efficient and we needed every one of them to have a chance to win tonight.'

Sophomore Masai Olowokere came off the bench and notched a career-high 14 points, hitting 2 of 3 from three-point range. Graduate forward Jared Chatham battled Samuel inside for most of the night and finished with 10 points and 9 rebounds. UCA out-rebounded FGCU 49-39, including 19 offensive boards. Chatham and freshman point guard Camren Hunter had five offensive rebounds each.

UCA connected on 11 three-pointers and shot 36.7 percent from beyond the arc. The game had 11 lead changes and 11 ties, with neither team holding a lead larger than eight points. 

"We had everybody stepping up (tonight) and if we can continue this effort, that will bear out the rest of the conference season,' said Boone. "And that's the challenge for us, is to learn from a couple of things we didn't handle well, especially down the stretch, but also to keep up the effort on the glass. If we can do that, we'll have a lot of ball games that we'll have a chance to win.'

The Bears will get another shot quickly, hosting the Stetson Hatters at 3:15 p.m. Saturday as part of an ASUN doubleheader with the Sugar Bears.