The UCA men’s basketball team suffered another loss at home to the Austin Peay State University Governors 73-71 on Jan. 23. 

In the opening six minutes, UCA got out to a commanding 14-5 lead. 

Austin Peay senior guard Isaac Haney rallied to a 7-point run to slice the Bears’ lead to 14-12. The Bears responded by restoring the lead back to 7 points, with the score at 28-21 with 6:43 remaining in the first half.

After a layup by Austin Peay graduate forward Sai Witt, the Governors (8-12, ASUN 3-4) took the lead with an 18-6 run to close the first half at 41-34. 

The Bears (5-15, ASUN 1-6) opened the second half with a five-minute 13-2 run. 

The Bears’ lead was raised to 63-53 after UCA sophomore guard Brayden Fagbemi scored a 3-pointer and freshman guard Layne Taylor scored a basket. 

“We came out and played with great toughness in the second half,” UCA head coach John Shulman said. “We were up, what 10 with 9:00 to play? And they made some shots and we made some goofy plays, and that was the game.”

Approximately eight minutes into the second half, Taylor aggravated a shoulder injury, forcing him to step out of the game in order to get his shoulder relocated.

“[Taylor’s] left shoulder keeps on coming out of place,” Shulman said. “And so we go put it back in, wrap it up and get out there and play again.”

Taylor led the team with 14 points, scoring two 3-pointers.

“There’s a four or five-minute stretch in the game where we just lose it,” Shulman said to ucasports.com. “We broke at the end of the first half and we talked about it at the half, do we have enough oomph (to come back).”

Fagbemi had one of the team’s two double-doubles, scoring 13 points and a career high of 10 assists. 

The other double-double for the Bears came from sophomore guard Michael Evbagharu, who scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds. 

“It’s like the other three losses that we have here,” Shulman said. “We lost to [Southeast Missouri] in overtime. We missed free throws [in the] last 20 seconds. We got beat in double overtime by Eastern Kentucky here.” 

Austin Peay took back the lead with a 16-0 run across seven minutes, establishing a permanent lead with a 3-pointer from freshman guard/forward Tate McCubbin. 

UCA was able to get within 1 point by way of a 3-pointer from senior guard/forward Elias Cato followed by a driving layup from freshman guard/forward Cole McCormick with 1:05 left in the game.

In the final minute of the game, Austin Peay missed a shot, onto which the Bears attempted to capitalize by way of a rebound from McCormick. 

However, the Bears missed the shot off of McCormick’s rebound and later surrendered a foul to the Governors. 

Austin Peay junior guard Tekao Carpenter successfully scored 2 points from free throws, securing the victory for the Governors.

In a last-ditch effort to decrease UCA’s deficit, Fagbemi scored a 3-pointer at the final buzzer. 

“We’re not getting the job done,” Shulman said. “I’m disappointed.”

The Bears, however, were too far behind to send the game into overtime, and the Governors handed UCA its fifth consecutive loss, with the final score at 73-71.

“We’re close, but that doesn’t count,” Shulman said. “So it really doesn’t matter how close we are.”

The Bears will attempt to snap their losing streak at home against the University of West Georgia on Jan. 29, at the Farris Center.