CONWAY, Ark. _ The undermanned University of Central Arkansas Bears put up another good fight Thursday night against one of the co-leaders in the Atlantic Sun Conference, but eventually fell 77-62 to the Jacksonville Dolphins at the Farris Center.

UCA, playing again without six key players, got an all-around effort from freshman center Nehemiah Turner and a hot shooting performance from redshirt freshman Ben Fox to hang around for much of the night. Turner had a game-high 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocked shots and made his first three-pointer of the season. Fox went 5 of 8 from three-point range for 15 points.

The Dolphins (16-9, 10-3) made 12 three-pointers and shot 50.8 percent overall, while UCA overcame 31.8 percent shooting in the first half and made 53.6 percent in the second half. UCA finished 8 of 22 from the arc. The Bears played just eight players, including a pair of walk-ons, one in the starting lineup.

"One thing I told our guys, our goal was the win the game," saud UCA head coach John Shulman. "No doubt. So we're disappointed we didn't win the game. But can I be disappointed because of our effort? Absolutely not. OD (Owen Derhmann) played 30 minutes. He didn't even play in any of the games up until about three games ago.

"Ethan (Thomas) played 13 minutes against a guy who was playing at Wake Forest two years ago. We're just shorthanded and we get fatigued. It's just really hard right now. But that's OK. There are so many life lessons to learn when things get tough. Tough times make tough men. So we're going to be a little tougher because of this."

Turner, a 6-foot-10 freshman starting just his fifth game, built off his career-high 23-point performance last Saturday at Austin Peay.  On Thursday he played a career high 32+ minutes and was dominant at times against one of the best front lines in the ASUN.

"Look, this is a guy who earlier in the year couldn't play more than two minutes at a time," said Shulman. "He's growing up, especially lately."

The Bears got the deficit down to just five points with a pair of baskets by sophomore D.J. Seixas and a layup by freshman Cole McCormick. But JU got hot from beyond the three-point line again, making four over a three-minute span to push the lead back out to 19 points.

Jacksonville had four in double figures, led by Robert McCray, the Wake Forest transfer, with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Kent Jackson went 4 of 6 from three-poinr range off the bench for the Dolphins.  Seixas added 10 points, playing out of position at point guard for the second straight game, while McCormick had 7 points and 7 rebounds.

"Do this. Take Payne, (Kendall) Munson, (Zach) Bell, (Jakari) Spence, McCray and (Chris) Arios off that roster for JU and see how that goes. I thought we played our tail ends off the first half and we're down five to one of the top teams in the league. That's hard. We're asking guys to do things that they probably can't do right now. And I think we're getting a little closer to hitting that wall right now. 

"We've asked a lot of these guys and they just keep bringing it. I'm proud of them. It's going to be an amazing story one day. It just stinks to go through this right now. I hate it for the guys, I hate it for the fans."

UCA continues its homestand at 3:30 Saturday when it hosts North Florida.