Bears Basketball Team Falls to First-place Lumberjacks 77-69

Courtesy UCA Athletics Department

CONWAY, Ark. _ Five players in double figures led the first-place Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks to a 77-69 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears in Southland Conference action on Thursday night at the Farris Center.

SFA (13-1, 4-0) beat the Bears for the ninth straight time, but it didn’t come easy. UCA (5-8, 0-3) got a spark with the return of junior guard LaQuentin Miles, who missed five games with a broken hand. Miles led the Bears with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 29 minutes of action.

The Bears, down 38-31 at halftime, got to within four points twice early in the second half. The Lumberjacks, the top defensive team in the nation allowing just 48.5 points a game, clamped down repeatedly in the final 15 minutes, but could not quite put the Bears away.

UCA made it 66-60 with a three-point play by junior Ryan Williams with 7:29 left to play. After SFA pushed the lead back to 11 points at 73-62 at the 3:28 mark, UCA rallied again and closed to within 73-67 on DeShone McClure’s three-pointer with 1:30 remaining.

But the Lumberjacks, who won their eighth straight game, closed out the victory with a dunk by Taylor Smith and a couple of free throws from Antonio Bostic. Smith was nearly perfect, going 11 of 12 from the field for 23 points, and also pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.

“Against a team like Stephen F. Austin, you can’t find yourself down 10 or 11 points,’ said UCA head coach Corliss Williamson. “Defensively, you know they’re going to lock down, defend you hard and rebound the basketball. When we got ourselves behind, it was really difficult to try to crawl out of the hole.’

The Lumberjacks shot 62.5 percent from the field in the second half and 55.8 percent for the game. Jacob Parker scored 15 points and Hal Bateman 13 for SFA, whle Bostic and Desmond Haymon had 10 each. SFA held its 46th consecutive opponent to less than 70 points.

Behind Miles, McClure added 10 points for UCA, which was outrebounded 42-28. The No. 2 three-point shooting team in the league, UCA was 4 of 12 from beyond the arc, with McClure going 2 for 3.

“I knew Q (Miles) was going to be ready to play,’ said Williamson. “I was excited and happy to see him out there. I thought he came in and gave us the spark we needed. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get some of our other guys to play their usual game.

“We struggled tonight offensively, and a lot of that has to do with Stephen F. Austin. They played us physical, they got into our guys and made it difficult for us on the offensive end.’

UCA returns to the Farris Center at 4 p.m. Saturday, hosting the second-place Northwestern State Demons (9-5, 3-1).