UCA has to work overtime, but get win over UNC Asheville on Sunday

CONWAY, Ark. — Central Arkansas Bears figured out how to win Sunday, securing a hard-fought 92-83 double-overtime victory over the UNC Asheville Bulldogs in non-conference action at Farris Center.

UCA (2-4) dominated the second overtime period, outscoring the Bulldogs 13-4. The Bears opened the second extra period with a 7-0 run, highlighted by a three-pointer from lone senior Elias Cato, and never looked back. UCA also made a combined 8 of 10 at the free-throw line in the two overtimes to hold off the Bulldogs (2-3).

“I am really proud of our kids,” said UCA coach John Shulman. “But more importantly than proud of our kids, I’m happy for our kids. Because they have been through a lot, and it’s early in the year, and they’ve still be through an awful lot. And we deserved better at Western Illinois. And we deserved better the other night with SEMO.

“And we deserved better tonight, and we didn’t get it. But instead of pouting about it and sulking about it, we did something about it.”

The Bears, who dropped an overtime game to Southeast Missouri at home on Thursday night, found the key to victory Sunday. UCA had four starters in double figures, led by a career-high 23 points from Cato, who added a team-high 9 rebounds and made three of UCA’s seven three-pointers. Freshman Layne Taylor and sophomore Brayden Fagbemi had 19 points each, while sophomore Michael Evbagharu had 18 points and 7 rebounds.

For the game, UCA shot 48.5 percent from the field and 75 percent (21 of 28) at the free-throw line. The Bears also had 20 assists, with Fagbemi and Taylor finishing with seven each. Both of those also had five steals apiece.

“They (UNCA) are a really good basketball team,” said Shulman. “Asheville goes to North Florida and wins by 15. So I wanted to make a statement to the league in saying ‘Hey, Central Arkansas we’re OK, over here in Conway, Ark., we’re pretty good.’

“But we haven’t done that yet. And everybody has been, ah ya’ll are getting close, you’re getting close. Forget about getting close. You get close, they talk about if for about half a day. You win a big one, they talk about it for awhile.”

UCA took a 38-30 halftime lead, despite the Bulldogs hitting eight three-pointers. The Bears were 9 of 10 at the foul line and the Bulldogs did not shoot any free throws in the half. Asheville would end up making 15 three-pointers, with guard Fletcher Abee going 9 of 19 from the arc and Josh Banks hitting 5 of 12.

But the Bears offset that at the free-throw line, where Evbagharu was 8 of 11, Cato was 4 of 4, Fagbemi was 3 of 4 and Taylor and Glory Etim were both 2 of 2. UCA outscored UNCA 40-26 in the paint and recorded 14 steals.

“These are all lessons,” said Shulman. “And we need to learn these lessons so when we get up against JU (Jacksonville) and the pressure us, now we have good tape, now we have good film to watch. Hey man, where did we screw this up or screw that up. And then you get better with it.

“I tell you one thing, it’s just nice to get better and feeling good about ourselves. We had 8,000 reasons to lose that game, and we didn’t. So I’m awfully, awfully, awfully proud of them and really pleased with them. And I’m just happy that they’re happy because we put them through a lot.”

UCA has five days off for Thanksgiving before taking on Georgia Tech at 1 p.m. Saturday in Atlanta.

Information from UCA Sports is included in this story.