CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears had a cold shooting night against the ASUN preseason favorite on Thursday night and it resulted in an 86-63 loss at the Farris Center.

The Bears, coming off an 84-81 victory over North Alabama on the road last Saturday, shot just 26.7 percent from the field and made just 2 of 12 three-pointers. UCA did connect on 25 of 34 (73.5 percent) from the free-throw line.

"They are a really good team," said UCA head coach Anthony Boone. "And they showed why they are one of the teams picked to win the conference."

The Bears were within six points at 26-20 with six minutes left in the first half but would get no closer as the Colonels (7-9) shot 50 percent from the field and made 13 of 30 (43.3 percent) from beyond the arc. EKU improved to 3-0 in conference play.

"One thing they did well is they guarded us really, really well," said Boone. "Of course they looked at a lot of our games, but I think they picked up what Western Illinois did guarding us. They kind of isolated us and didn't really come over to help on guys. We really depend on that because we like to pass around each other and find each other. We get a lot of assists that way.

"Their goal was to not let us do that, and they're athletic enough to play one on one and man up and not have to depend on help from their teammates. And they were successful doing that. And when we finally did get some open looks, we didn't hit very many of them."

UCA, which had a season-low five assists, made a brief run early in the second half, cutting a 17-point halftime deficit to just 11 points on a Tucker Anderson layup with 17:00 remaining. But the Colonels were too much down the stretch and ended UCA's two-game winning streak. 

Anderson, before leaving with an injury, scored 15 points and went 7 of 8 at the free-throw line. Junior Elias Cato also had 15 pionts, going 9 of 11 at the line. Sophomore Carl Daughtery, Jr., added 13 points and sophomore Glory Etim had 10 rebounds.

"(Tucker)  was very aggressive going to the basket and that's one thing we did do, we attacked the paint and got to the line a lot," said Boone. "And that's what we have to do when we can't find the looks that we normally get. Driving to the basket, and we kept doing that. But we just didn't convert enough and we didn't string enough stops together there in the second half.

"Starting the second half, we did a pretty good job and we just couldn't sustain that."

UCA shot 20 more free throws than EKU, which was 11 of 14 at the line. Michael Moreno led the Colonels with 20 points, hitting 6 of 9 from three-point range. Isaiah Cozart added 17 points and 10 rebound.

The Bears are back at home at 3:30 Saturday when they host Bellarmine.