CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears battled into overtime on Thursday before falling 77-73 to the Southeast Missouri Redhawks in non-conference action at the Farris Center.

UCA, which got 20 points apiece from senior Elias Cato and sophomore Brayden Fagbemi, misfired on three free throws in the overtime period. Fagbemi made two of two at the line with 12.5 seconds left to get the Bears within three at 76-73.

Sophomore Michael Evbagharu then stole a SEMO pass and Cato was fouled. Cato, UCA's lone senior who also had seven rebounds to go with his 20 points, missed both free throw attempts. SEMO's Marqueas Bell made 1 of 2 for a 77-73 lead with 6.8 to play before Brendan Terry missed two more for the Redhawks.

"Athletics and basketball and sports is a very finicky, and sometimes very cruel game," said UCA head coach John Shulman. "And that's why not everybody can do it. And you've got a bunch of hurting kids in there, who have busted their tail ends and not getting rewarded for it.

"It is what is it. It's the test. What are you going to do now. Are you going to keep on working or are you just going to feel sorry for yourself. And that's what's hard. I hate it for the kids, because they deserved better tonight. They deserved better against Western Illinois. We deserved better but we didn't get better, so what are you going to do. You just have to get back to work."

The teams played to a 34-34 halftime tie, despite the Bears hitting just 1 of 6 from three-point range. For the game, UCA was an uncharacteristic 3 of 21 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc.

"I think you have to get the foul line in that particular situation and miss, to understand what if feels like," said Shulman. "I don't know how many true freshmen are playing in America. But if we can all just take a deep breath and hang in there with these young kids... these are true freshmen, and they're taking big shots.

"So let's just see what those big shots look like in January (when ASUN play begins)."

The game featured 15 leads changes and 17 ties, with six points the biggest lead for either team.

"It felt like a conference game," said Shulman. "I thought Saturday (at WIU) felt like a conference game. And to be honest, I think we got better tonight. I wish we had a result. I wish we could say, hey look at us, we're rocking and rolling. I can't say that. But I feel a lot different than I did after Western Illinois. 

"I thought our effort was really good. I think we got better tonight."

The Bears will be at home again at 1 p.m. Sunday, facing UNC Asheville, which will play SEMO at 6:30 Friday night as part of UCA's multi-team event (MTE).