CONWAY, Ark. _ Another close game went down to the wire for the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday in the Central Arkansas Classic at the Farris Center, but they once again came out on the short end.

The Bears (1-6) battled for 40 minutes against the Eastern Michigan Eagles before falling 74-71.

UCA got a second consecutive career high from sophomore Carl Daughtery, Jr. (24 points) and a career-high 13 assists from sophomore point guard Johannes Kirsipuu but the Eagles (4-2) made the plays down the stretch.

The Bears trailed 74-68 after two EMU free throws with 33.8 remaining, but Daughtery was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws with 25.2 remaining. UCA fouled Julius Ellerbe and he missed a free throw that UCA's Elias Cato pulled down for the rebound. UCA called time out with 4.8 on the clock but misfired on a contested three-pointer at the buzzer.

"It was a great college basketball game," said UCA head coach Anthony Boone, "two teams going at it pretty good. They came out and hit us pretty good to begin the game and our guys kept their composure and we came back and were able to put ourselves back in the game."

The Bears started slowly, falling behind 12-4 to open the game. But they fought back and tied it at halftime as freshman Javion Guy-King scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half and sophomore Glory Etim put in a tip at the buzzer off a perfect inbounds pass from Guy-King. The second half started much the same way, with the Eagles running out to an eight-point lead in first four minutes before UCA rallied once again. 

"I thought we played a pretty good game," said Boone. "Our issue was starting the game and then starting the second half. And I told the guys, if we take the first four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half away, we win this game by double digits, we win it going away.

"There's an issue with us starting the game and we've got to solve that. We've done a few things differently over the last few games, but something's got to be different. We have to do something different." 

Daughtery, from Maumelle, Ark., had 19 of his 24 points in the second half. He finished 7 of 13 from the field, 2 of 2 from three-point range and 8 of 10 at the foul line. His 24 points topped the 23 he scored at Kansas State on Wednesday night. UCA shot 40 percent (8 of 20) from three-point range for the game and won the rebound battle 36-35, with all eight players who saw action pulling down at least one. Kirsipuu had 13 of UCA's 18 assists on the day.

Guy-King added 14 points, hitting 2 of 3 from three-point range, and senior Masai Olowokere had 12 points and junior Elias Cato 11. 

"YoYo (Kirsipuu) continues to grow and continues to do a great job of running the team and managing the game," said Boone. "His teammates are continuing to learn him and he's continuing to learn his teammates. He's communicating to them, look, when I'm doing this you need to do that. When you do this, I'll do that.

"He and CJ (Daughtery) were on a great level today, and it certainly helped CJ (scoring) and also helped Yoyo with a lot of assists." 

The Bears once again played without several players due to injury and illness, including starters Camren Hunter and Tucker Anderson, along with key reserve Ibbe Klintman.

"It is extremely difficult, and that's frustrating," said Boone. "It is tough to deal with for us as a staff and it's tough for the guys, too, because the don't know who their teammates are going to be from a game-to-game basis. I do take that into consideration, that makes things hard."

UCA will take on old Southland Conference foe New Orleans at 2:45 Sunday. The Privateers lost 71-69 to North Dakota in Saturday's opening game of the classic.