The UCA Bears battled the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles in a hard-fought brawl with the Eagles securing 82 points to the Bears’ 59 points Feb. 1.

FGCU (10-13, 4-4 ASUN) dominated the court for most of both halves, leaving UCA (8-16, 4-4 ASUN) little room for error.

“It was a struggle,” coach Anthony Boone said. “It was disappointing for us. I’m not sure why we came out so slow. Florida Gulf Coast has a great team and came out … We didn’t meet the challenge starting off, and it took us a while to get going.” 

The first half saw an aggressive start by FGCU, accumulating 8 points within the first two minutes. 

Considering the Eagles’ strong start, the Bears struggled to get their footing, but a jump shot by junior guard/forward Elias Cato put some points on the board for UCA. 

While the 2 points helped the Bears, the Eagles continued to widen the point gap by 20 points. 

UCA freshman forward Tucker Anderson swiped 2 points with a dunk.

Sophomore guard Carl Daughtery raised the score after a 3-pointer and a jump shot, making the score 27-9, Eagles ahead.

Although UCA tried to catch up, the Eagles dominated the court for the remainder of the half, leaving the game 49-25. 

While the Bears struggled in the first half, they brought their momentum back in the second half, starting with Cato scoring a 3-pointer and completing a layup within the first few minutes, leaving the match 52-28.

FGCU continued to keep a gap, yet the teams switched possession often. 

UCA kept scoring consistently, but it was not enough to recover from the high point gap. 

The brawl ended with a final score of 82-59.

“We didn’t just totally let go. I will say even when we were down, a bunch of guys were giving pretty good effort at that point to try to mount some type of comeback. We did dig into their lead a little bit,” Boone said.

The Bears will return to the court Feb. 8 to battle the Jacksonville University Dolphins in Jacksonville, Florida. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.