UCA BEARS SET TO BATTLE SEC BULLDOGS

Courtesy University of Central Arkansas Athletics Department

CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas will hit the road Saturday to face its second consecutive team from an FBS conference, this time the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The UCA Bears and MSU Bulldogs meet at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Miss.

The Bulldogs, under first-year head coach Rick Ray, are 3-6 overall and are coming off a 59-51 loss at Loyola-Chicago last Saturday.

“Regardless of their record, they are an SEC team,’ said UCA head coach Corliss Williamson, who faced Southeastern Conference competition as a player at Arkansas. “They have SEC talent. We’re kind of catching them on a bad stretch, and hopefully things continue to go badly for them on Saturday.

“But you know they are looking for a way to bounce back at home, so we know it’s going to be a tough game for us on the road. We just took a tough loss as well so we have to see if our guys can bounce back mentally from this loss.’

The Bears (4-4) are coming off a 91-63 loss at No. 24 Oklahoma State on Sunday, a game they led by as much as 11 points in the opening half. It was UCA’s first game without All-Southland Conference guard LaQuentin Miles, who has a broken bone in his right hand and is out until conference play begins in January.

Junior forward Jordan Harks, playing with a foot injury, tied his career high with 16 points, while senior guards Jarvis Garner and Robert Crawford added 14 and 11 points, respectively.

The Bears are second in the SLC in three-point shooting at 38.2 percent, and UCA has four players ranked in the top 15 in scoring. Crawford averages 14.6 points per game, while Miles is at 13.9, Garner at 13.8 and Harks at 11.8.

The Bulldogs have lost four players to injury this season, including two freshmen with ACL injuries. Senior forward Wendell Lewis is also out with a fractured patella and junior Jalen Steele has a fractured wrist.

Mississippi State is 37-3 in career games against Southland Conference schools. In their last meeting with an SLC school, the Bulldogs beat Northwestern State 82-67 last season.