Bears Try to Even Season Series With Colonels

Courtesy University of Central Arkansas Athletics Department

CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears faced Nicholls State earlier this season without one of its top players, starting guard LaQuentin Miles. They will face the Colonels again on Saturday missing another star, this time forward Jarvis Garner.

Miles missed the first game with a broken hand; Garner will be serving the second game of a two-game suspension for breaking team rules. 

The Colonels won 83-79 back on Jan. 3 in Thibodaux, La., with Nicholls placing four players in double figures and forcing 22 UCA turnovers. 

Senior guard Robert Crawford topped the Bears with 21 points, hitting 4 of 7 from three-point range. Crawford, who had a team-high 17 points in UCA’s 70-69 loss to Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday night, remains first in the Southland Conference in three-point field goals made (3.1 per game) and second in three-point percentage (44.4). 

The Colonels (6-13, 5-4) have the No. 2 scorer and No. 6 rebounder in the league in senior All-SLC guard Fred Hunter, who averages 18.3 points and 7.3 rebounds. Hunter, a big guard at 6-foot-5, 240-pounds, had 19 points and 6 rebounds in the first meeting.

The Bears (8-11, 3-6) saw their season-high three-game winning streak come to a end Thursday when Southeastern Louisiana scored on an inbounds play in the final seconds for a 70-69 victory. Nicholls lost 90-78 at Oral Roberts.

“(Coach) J.P. (Piper) does a great job at Nicholls,’ said UCA head coach Corliss Williamson. “He always has his team ready to play. You know they’re going to come in here and they’re going to be tough, they’re going to be physical and they’re going to compete.

“The thing for us is we have to get this loss out of our minds, we have to learn from our mistakes. But we have to re-focus and get our minds on Nicholls State. We still have a opportunity to come out of this four-game stretch at home with three wins and still be on a positive note.” 

UCA returns to the road for two games next week, at first-place Stephen F. Austin on Thursday and at third-place Northwestern State on Saturday.

 

 

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