Bears season comes crashing to end in ASUN quarterfinal loss

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Playing their second game in 24 hours, Central Arkansas ran out of gas against the No. 1 team in the ASUN Championship on Monday night, dropping an 84-66 quarterfinal game to the Lipscomb Bisons at Allen Arena.

The 10th-seeded Bears put everything they had into a 77-72 win over No. 9 Stetson on Sunday night, then had to turn around and face the preseason favorite and top seed on its home court.

The Bisons improved to 13-3 at home this season and are now 23-9 overall. Lipscomb will host Queens in a semifinal matchup on Thursday night.

The Bears fell behind early against some solid perimeter shooting by the home team. Lipscomb made seven three-pointers in the first half and went to locker room with a 46-24 lead.

UCA shot just 28.6 percent from the field and was 4-of-18 from the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

“Out of respect for us, I thought they (Lipscomb) brought their ‘A’ game,” said UCA coach John Shulman. “They played really good. We didn’t have a lot of juice. I know better.

“You cannot celebrate in the middle of a tournament And we celebrated last night. But we were so desperate for something to celebrate, something good to happen in this basketball program.

“I let them do it, and that’s my fault for tonight. But we had a really special night last night and I couldn’t not let them celebrate that. I wouldn’t do that.”

The Bears showed some life in the second half, playing within four points (42-28) of the Bisons after halftime.

UCA shot 51.7 percent in the second half. and made 12 of 12 at the free-throw line on the night. Sophomore guard Brayden Fagbemi led the Bears with 20 points, while freshman Nehemiah Turner followed up his 37-point outburst on Sunday with 14 points, 5 rebounds and four assists against Lipscomb.

Redshirt freshman Ben Fox added 12 points, including three three-pointers, and freshman Cole McCormick had 10 points.

Elias Cato, UCA’s only senior on the roster, finished a distinguished career with eight points and six rebounds. For his career, Cato had 926 points and 448 career rebounds.

“Elias helped us get here,” said Shulman, “and I thank him for that. But I’m really proud of the whole bunch. I’m proud of Elias, I’m proud of Glo (Glory Etim).

“But how on earth we did what we did without the guys we were missing. Did we take a baby step, absolutely. Did we take another step, absolutely. And we’ve got a huge head start from where we were this time last March in trying to figure out what this thing is going to look like.”

The Bears battled unprecedented injuries throughout the season and ended the year playing numerous freshmen and even some walk-ons.

Still, they earned their first ASUN Tournament berth since 2022 and won their second ASUN Tournament game.

“Did we take strides this year, absolutely,” said Shulman. “We got to the ASUN Tournament. We won a game in the ASUN Tournament. We just got beat by a better basketball team tonight. The whole thing at halftime was, hey guys, we’ve fought and battled all year, so do we really want to go out this way?

“And I knew we wouldn’t. We brought it the second half and we battled and competed. And now our guys know what a quarterfinal game looks like. And they know what you have to bring in a quarterfinal game.

“To be honest with you, if you want to go to the NCAA Tournament, you can’t play on Sunday night. You had better be in the top six. And we now know that. If you’re in the top six, you don’t have to play that first game.

“But I’m really proud of what these guys accomplished with all the adversity we had with injuries. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t give our fans more, but we will. I never thought we’d be in the shape we were in, injury wise, this year, but I’m really excited about the future. I’m really excited about UCA basketball, and I think people should be.”

Information from UCA Sports is included in this story.