Feb 9th, 2007 09:06PM
by:

By STEVE EAST
UCA SID

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — In their first tour through the Southland Conference, the University of Central Arkansas Bears (8-16, 2-8) have faced some tough challenges around the league. Their toughest yet may come tonight when they face the Sam Houston State Bearkats at 7 p.m. at Johnson Coliseum.

The Bearkats (16-7, 8-2 SLC), who won 22 games and advanced to the finals of the conference tournament last season, have regained their form — reeling off four straight victories, including triumphs at division leaders Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Northwestern State in the last week.

“They’re an extremely hot team right now,” UCA head coach Rand Chappell said. “They’re coming off two extremely big road wins and they have basically everybody back off last year’s team, so they feel like this is their year to get to the NCAA Tournament and they’ve really started playing that way the last week or two.”

Junior Ryan Bright, a 6-foot-6, 210-lb forward, has been the most lethal of the Bearkats — scoring 27 points against Northwestern State on 9 of 9 shooting from the floor, including a perfect 6-for-6 on 3-point attempts.

“Their 4 and 5 men are pretty unique in that they both shoot the ball extremely well on 3-pointers,” Chappell said. “They have the skills of a perimeter player, yet they’re 6-7 guys who are aggressive and can get a lot of things done.”

The Bears will have more perimeter presence themselves, coming into the game with a new look. Senior center Fernando Johnson suffered a thumb injury during the Stephen F. Austin game and will likely miss the remainder of the season.

“Losing Fernando is really a giant loss for us,” Chappell said. “Having him in the middle has allowed us to neutralize the front line of almost every team we’ve played all year. Our two strengths have been defense and rebounding and he’s been a big part of those. Some people are really going to have to step up for us now.”

In the absence of their 6-foot-9 center, the Bears will insert 6-0 guard Nate Bowie into the starting lineup along with Marcus Pillow, Fred Campbell, Mitch Rueter and Durrell Nevels.

“We’ll be smaller, but that could lead to some advantages for us offensively,” Chappell said. “We’ll have more perimeter players on the floor and better movement, and possibly better shooting. We need to turn that into a positive being that the other’s a negative.

"I think you’ll see it puts Durrell more at the 5 spot and he’s comfortable in there offensively. It’ll make our 4-man Mitch Rueter or DaMarcus Bell, and they’re both more comfortable on the perimeter, so we’ll probably be more of a four-out, one-in team.”