Bears
Bears lose Cato in warmups, then fall to North Alabama
Braden Fagbemi picks up scoring slack with Taylor out, then Cato aggravates hamstring just before game against Lions
FLORENCE, Ala. — The injury bug bit Central Arkansas yet again Saturday night in a 94-65 loss to the North Alabama Lions in Atlantic Sun Conference action at Flowers Hall.
The Bears, already playing without leading scorer Layne Taylor and three other key players, lost No. 2 scorer and lone senior Elias Cato during warmups when he aggravated a hamstring injury.
Sophomore Brayden Fagbemi took up much of the scoring slack, particularly in the first half. Fagbemi scored 19 points _ one short of his career high _ in the opening 20 minutes, including five three-pointers. UCA was 7 of 17 (41.7 percent) from the arc in the first half. He finished with a career-high 25 points, going 7 of 9 from three-point range.
UCA played 12 different players against the Lions (15-8, 7-3), who improved to 10-1 at home this season.
“It’s hard enough to get your team ready, then you find out 12 minutes before the game that Elias is out,” said UCA coach John Shulman. “We lost our leading scorer last week, then we lose him (our leading scorer) again. Last Friday when we lost Layne we had at least half a day (to prepare). Try doing it in 12 minutes.
“This is a basketball game and it’s supposed to teach us lessons about how to handle adversity and how to handle this stuff. But at one time or another, you’d like to have a decent break on occasion. But we just couldn’t get our feet on the ground in the first half. We were kind of looking around and woe is me, and we can’t be feeling sorry for ourselves. But the reality is we’re down five dudes, and the wrong five dudes.
“We’ve got some really good guys out.”
The Lions led by as much as 23 points in the first half but the Bears kept fighting. UCA finished 13 of 29 (44.8 percent) from three-point range but shot just 43.7 percent from the field overall. The Bears were also 6 of 13 at the free-throw line, as were the Lions. The big difference was the Lions shot 57.8 percent overall on their home floor and forced 15 UCA turnovers.
“Brayden stepped up and made some shots, and that’s good for him,” said Shulman. “Cole was good. And in this type of environment, to be honest, I was worried about us breaking anyway. We’ve been good, we’ve been good, we’ve been good. But sometimes you break and you get fatigued. We were probably due one of these, and I don’t like it. But the combination was probably kind of a perfect storm.
“And UNA is really good, they have a really good basketball team.”
Daniel Oritz led the Lions with 21 points, while Jacari Lane added 17. McCormick scored 12 points for UCA.
The Bears return home next Wednesday when they host Queens at 6:30 p.m. at the Farris Center.
