ATLANTA, Ga. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears spotted the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets a 10-0 lead to start the game and could never get over that hump Saturday in an 87-68 loss at McCamish Pavilion.
The Yellow Jackets (4-3) opened with a pair of three-pointers in the first two minutes to give them the cushion they would hold the remainder of the game. After that, UCA, missing five players, played nearly even with their ACC foe the rest of the way, losing the second half 38-30.
"The first two minutes of the game, they punched us in the mouth," said UCA head coach John Shulman. "We're down 10-0. (associate head coach) Brock (Widders) said with 3:30 to go in the game, we were down one in the second half. So if we just take care of the first two minutes, it's a two-point game with three to play.
"I thought their athleticism and size wore us down and we could never get over the hump. It was a 9 to 12-point game the entire game. At an ACC venue, at Georgia Tech. So it is what it is. Their size and length hurt us. But I can't ask Elias (Cato) and Layne (Taylor) and Brayden (Fagbemi) and Michael (Fagbemi) to do a whole lot more than what they're doing. They're all playing too many minutes.
"But remember, we had eight scholarship guys out there. Hopefully to goodness, at some point we catch a break with some injuries. We're not at the point in our program to absorb a whole lot of losses (to injury) like that."
Taylor, a true freshman from Farmington, Ark., led the Bears with 20 points, including five (of 13) three-pointers, and added a game-high 5 assists.
Elias Cato, UCA's lone senior, had 17 points and three threes, while Fagbemi had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Bears kept cutting into their deficit but the Yellow Jackets kept responding down the stretch in the second half. A Taylor three-pointer got UCA within 51-45 early in the second half. Another by Fagbemi made it a 58-51 margin with 13:00 left.
A 10-2 run by Georgia Tech pushed it back out to a 15-point lead with 8:30 remaining before Taylor nailed another corner three. Georgia Tech could never quite pull away from the Bears, despite making 13 three-pointers and winning the rebound battle 41-28, but UCA could not get the margin to single digits.
"We had none (experience) out there in Utah," Shulman said of his young team. "And now all of a sudden we walk into an ACC venue and we're flipping out, we're mad at them because we got beat. And we played a good basketball game. We just could never get the rebound to get us over the hump.
"And I told them, I thought we missed some shots in the paint, against their size and the length. And in the ASUN, we would score the ball on the ones we didn't tonight. I appreciate our guys' effort. This isn't the easiest thing in the world, to go into an ACCU venue. And we still have two SEC teams (Oklahoma, Arkansas). But I think we got better today."
The Bears finished 14 of 32 from beyond the arc for a season-high 43,8 percent. UCA also had just eight turnovers.
UCA has three consecutive in-state foes coming up, all on the road. The Bears play at Little Rock on Wednesday, at UAPB on Saturday and vs. Arkansas on Dec. 14 at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.
