Bears
Bears finally land much-needed win, downing North Florida
Bears battle back in second half after John Shulman thought they “were done” at halftime break against Ospreys
CONWAY, Ark. — Central Arkansas used a dominant second half, and an overtime period, to knock off the North Florida Ospreys 84-83 in Atlantic Sun Conference action on Saturday at the Farris Center.
UCA (7-20, 3-11), which had lost four consecutive games, fought its way back from a 17-point halftime deficit by outscoring UNF 38-21 in the second half.
The Bears’ defense held the Ospreys to 21.1 percent shooting overall in the second half and 5-of-25 (20 percent) from three-point range. UNF had made 12 threes in the first half and finished the game with 20 on a whopping 51 attempts.
“To be honest with you, I kind of felt at halftime that our kids were beat down and had had enough,” said UCA coach John Shulman. “I thought we were done at the half. And I was really disappointed. But resilient, absolutely. I’m really proud of our kids.
“This team has been through a lot. It’s human nature, enough is enough. I’m tired of this stuff. We had a chance to do that at halftime. Nobody would have thought anything wrong about that, nobody would have pointed a finger at us. Aww, your kids played really hard, blah, blah, blah.
“But they didn’t want to hear that today. I’m really proud of our kids, really proud of their resiliency. It was a really neat win for us and I’m excited for them.”
The Bears, still playing without five players, got a game- and career-high 23 points from sophomore guard Michael Evbagharu, along with 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. Evbagharu was perfect in the first half, going 3 of 3 from the field, 2 of 2 from the arc and 2 of 2 at the free-throw line.
Evbagharu made a steal and was fouled with UCA leading 83-80 with 1.9 seconds left. After missing the first free throw, he connected on the second, which turned out to be the game-winner as UNF’s Kamrin Oriol launched a desperation three-pointer that went in, setting the one-point final.
The Bears, down 49-32 at the break, put together a big scoring run midway through the second half. UCA outscored UNF 19-6 beginning at the 9:30 mark and eventually tied the game at 67-67 on a Cole McCormick basket with 1:32 remaining. McCormick, who tied his career high with 19 points, scored 10 consecutive points down the stretch.
In overtime, Brayden Fagbemi and Evbagharu had layups to open the scoring. UNF made another three-pointer to re-take the lead with 3:45 left but Nehemiah Turner scored inside and Fagbemi sank a three-pointer and a pair of free throws and UCA never trailed again.
After UNF got to within one point at 81-80 with 59 seconds left, Turner made two free throws with 13.9 on the clock before Evbagharu got a steal and made the final free throw.
Turner, playing off the bench after starting the previous four games, had 17 points and 5 rebounds and was 7 of 7 at the free-throw line. Fagbemi, returning to the lineup after missing two games with back spasms, had 16 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists.
UCA led for just 3:49 in the game, compared to 37:32 for the Ospreys (13-14, 6-8), who beat the Bears by 12 points in the previous meeting in Jacksonville, Fla. last month.
The Bears return to the road for two games next week, playing at Queens on Tuesday and at West Georgia on Thursday.
