CONWAY, Ark. _ A pair of double-doubles carried the University of Central Arkansas Bears to a much-needed 88-85 overtime victory over the North Florida Ospreys on Thursday night at the Farris Center.

UCA (7-15, 2-7) got a huge basket from redshirt freshman V.J. Reeves with 16.6 seconds left for an 86-83 lead. UNF (8-13, 3-6) made a pair of free throws with 12.2 remaining. Junior Collin Cooper answered with a pair at the free-throw line one second later to make it a three-point game. 

The Ospreys, who made 10 three-pointers in the game, called a time out to set up a final one. Carter Hendricksen, who had a game-high 32 points and five threes, misfired and UCA's Masai Olowokere corralled the rebound to seal it.

Hunter and senor Eddy Kayouloud both had double-doubles, with Hunter scoring 24 points with 12 rebounds and Kayouloud getting 19 points and 10 rebounds. Reeves, a redshirt freshman, was a rebound short of another double-double with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Hunter missed the Bears' last game at North Alabama with an illness but did not show any ill effects against UNF, scoring 18 of his points in the decisive second half.

"I would stay here all night long and I've got some guys over there that would stay here all night long to get a win," said acting head coach Brock Widders. "It's hard to get wins in this (ASUN) league. We've been through a lot and I'm really happy for our guys right now because they scratched and fought and clawed for most of the game.

"We had chances to quit several times, down 10, down 12, and these guys didn't quit. Cam Hunter, goodness gracious. That guy had his first practice in a week yesterday. He was throwing up in practice because he was so fatigued. But he comes out here and puts up that kind of performance."

The Bears trailed by eight at the half after leading 18-12 early in the first half. The Ospreys connected on seven three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes and had a 14-0 scoring run that gave them the halftime cushion. UCA then got down by as much as 12 early in the second half before the rally began.

UCA cut it to six but UNF pushed it back to a 10-point margin with 7:30 to play. The Bears eventually tied it at 71 on Hunters free throws with 3:10 remaining. UCA held the lead twice more, including following a rebound basket by Reeves with :50 on the clock. But UNF got a pair of free throws to send it to overtime.

"Down the stretch, they made their free throws and we made our free throws," said Widders. "So very pleased with our execution in crunch time. We were riding Cam Hunter and we're riding Eddy Kayouloud the whole way down the stretch. But we've got a lot of good guys over there, so we drew something up to kind of get a little different look. They were keying on those other guys so hard that I really wanted to go to someone else and give them a different look."

Kayouloud scored four straight points for the Bears to open the extra period but neither team led by more than three points in overtime. The Bears went 3 of 6 from the field and 5 of 7 from three line in overtime, while the Ospreys were 1 of 6 from the field and 5 of 6 at the line.

'I'm super happy for Eddy," Widders said. "It's not secret that he's been in a funk for a while now, but he came to practice the last two days with a desire to get out of that funk. So I was glad he was able to put it on the floor tonight and believe in himself. 

UCA also got 13 points from Cooper. Hunter added 4 assists and 4 steals to his box score. Hendricksen was one of only two Ospreys in double figures, with Jose Placer adding 14 points. For the game, UNF shot 10 of 36 from three-point range (27.8%), a year after making 14 threes against the Bears in their matchup in Jacksonville, Fla. 

UCA forced 18 turnovers and scored 58 of its points in the paint.

"I was encouraging that in all the timeouts," said Widders. "And I ultimately asked every single one of them to come together and raise their urgency and truly believe they could do it. It probably wasn't me, they decided it on their own and they believed and got the win."

UCA is at home again at 3 p.m. Saturday, taking on the Jacksonville Dolphins, a team they played in the regular season and the postseason a year ago.