UCA falls to Georgia Tech 87-68

ATLANTA – Central Arkansas men’s basketball team fell behind early against Georgia Tech and couldn’t comeback falling 87-68 at McCamish Pavilion on Saturday.

The Yellow Jackets jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead and never looked back, improving their record to 4-3 overall. UCA, who was missing five players for Saturday’s contest, fell to 2-5 to start the 2024-25 campaign.

“The first two minutes of the game, they punched us in the mouth,” said UCA head coach John Shulman. “We’re down 10-0. (associate head coach) Brock (Widders) said with 3:30 to go in the game, we were down one in the second half. So if we just take care of the first two minutes, it’s a two-point game with three to play.

“I thought their athleticism and size wore us down and we could never get over the hump. It was a 9 to 12-point game the entire game. At an ACC venue, at Georgia Tech. So it is what it is. Their size and length hurt us. But I can’t ask Elias (Cato) and Layne (Taylor) and Brayden (Fagbemi) and Michael (Fagbemi) to do a whole lot more than what they’re doing. They’re all playing too many minutes.”

Layne Taylor led the Bears with 20 poiints and three rebound while Elias Cato had 17 and 4 and Brayden Fagbemi had 15 and six.

The Bears kept cutting into their deficit but the Yellow Jackets kept responding down the stretch in the second half. A Taylor three-pointer got UCA within 51-45 early in the second half. Another by Fagbemi made it a 58-51 margin with 13:00 left.

A 10-2 run by Georgia Tech pushed it back out to a 15-point lead with 8:30 remaining before Taylor nailed another corner three. Georgia Tech could never quite pull away from the Bears, despite making 13 three-pointers and winning the rebound battle 41-28, but UCA could not get the margin to single digits.

UCA has three consecutive in-state foes coming up, all on the road. The Bears play at Little Rock on Wednesday, at UAPB on Saturday and vs. Arkansas on Dec. 14 at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.