The UCA Men’s Basketball team extended their historic winning streak to nine, using an efficient second half to defeat the Bellarmine University Knights 84-76 at the Farris Center on February 11.
The Bears improved to 16-10 in the season and 11-2 in Atlantic Sun Conference play with the win, topping the most conference games Central Arkansas has won in the NCAA era.
The game opened with an early 11-2 Bellarmine run that saw the Knights hit three pointers on three consecutive possessions.
Bellarmine used a 6/9 three point shooting stretch early on to keep the Bears at arms length for the majority of the first half.
Contrarily, Central Arkansas struggled to find efficiency early, as the Bears made just 10 of their first 26 field goal attempts.
Down 32-23 with 4:12 remaining in the first half, sophomore forward Cole McCormick drew a foul and made one of two shots, sparking a 10-2 run from the Bears to close the halftime deficit to 34-33.
The Knights came out looking to knock UCA against the ropes to start the second half, as a 13-6 Bellarmine run, capped off by a three from sophomore forward Michael Wilson Jr., put the Knights up 47-39 with 16:00 left in the game.
Freshman guard Luke Moore responded with a three of his own for the Bears at the 15:41 mark, igniting a scoring explosion as Central Arkansas would tally 45 points in the final 16 minutes of play.
The Knights fought hard to hold off the UCA surge, trading baskets and the lead with the Bears until freshman guard Ty Robinson’s three with 8:23MJ to play gave UCA a 62-59 lead that they would not relinquish.
The Bears officially ended the game on a 25-17 stretch to give Central Arkansas a 84-76 victory, their third in five days.
UCA’s Head Men’s basketball coach, John Shulman, spoke postgame about the physical condition of his team after playing so much basketball in a short span.
Shulman said, “We are exhausted. We just played three games in five days and four in eight. Bellarmine is not a team that you need to be exhausted to play against because they grind you to death.”
Despite the busy recent schedule for the team, Shulman knows that’s no excuse to ease off the gas, especially with the historic stretch the team is currently in the midst of.
Shulman said, “Regret is hard to deal with, but being tired, we’ll be fine. They’ll recover, they’re young people.”
Camren Hunter led the way for Central Arkansas with 18 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals.
Four other Bears joined Hunter with double digits in the scoring column, as Robinson and Moore had 15 and 14 points respectively. Junior guard Javion Guy-King added 12 points and McCormick chipped in with 10 of his own off the bench.
Robinson spoke postgame about how he has been able to maintain a positive mindset despite a recent shooting slump prior to tonight.
Robinson said, “If I don’t shoot the ball, [Coach Shulman] is going to take me out of the game. They expect me to stay level headed just like they believe in me. So I’m gonna keep believing in myself.”
UCA forced 16 Bellarmine turnovers, the eighth game in a row they’ve forced double digit turnovers from their opponent.
Coach Shulman spoke how he leans on his team’s defensive versatility to offset stretches of sub-par shooting from the Bears.
Shulman said, “We’ve got multiple defenses we can run. You know why? Because I’m old and I like doing it, and so I think creating turnovers off of our defense, I thought it really helped us in the second half. I thought Javion [Guy-King] had a big steal and gave it to Luke [Moore] to go up three.”
The Bears are back in the Farris Center this weekend for a tilt with the University of West Georgia Wolves Saturday, February 15, as they attempt to extend their winning streak to double figures.
All UCA Basketball games can be streamed on ESPN+.