Feb 16th, 2007 07:26AM
by:

By STEVE EAST
UCA SID

CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas Bears played one of their best games of the season  in all phases of the game except one Thursday night and it turned out to be the difference in an 86-82 loss to the Lamar Cardinals at the Farris Center.

The Bears had five players with at least 10 points, shot better than 50 percent from the field for the first time all season and outscored the bigger Lamar front line 46-24 in the paint. They forced 18
turnovers and held  7-foot-1 center James Davis, the leading scorer in the Southland Conference, to 12 points.

The difference was the Cardinals made 12 3-pointers and shot 50 percent from beyond the arc and UCA  made only 4 of 19 (21 percent).

The Cardinals had four players in double figures, led by junior guard Darren Hopkins with 25 points. Senior guard Brandon Chappell hit 6 of 9 from 3-point range and followed with 22 points. Davis had 12 points and Currye Todd added 10 for the Cardinals (11-14, 5-6).

UCA got an all-around game from 6-6 junior Durrell Nevels of Hot Springs, with a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds. He tied the school single-game record with 7 blocked shots and moved into second place on the career block list with 85 (all this season), passing former NBA great Scottie Pippen.

Freshman guard Marcus Pillow had a career-high 9 assists and scored 11 points, while junior guard Nate Bowie had 15 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. Sophomore forward Mitch Rueter followed with 14 points and 5 assists, while senior Fred Campbell chipped in 10 points.

UCA (8-18, 2-10) fell behind by 12 points midway through the first half as the Cardinals were hitting from the perimeter. Chappell made five of his 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes  but the Bears
outscored the Cardinals 17-6 in the final seven minutes to close it to 37-36 at halftime.

The Bears went up by five when Rueter scored inside at the 17:30 mark, but Lamar battled back again. A 3-pointer by Hopkins gave the Cardinals a 60-55 lead with 11:30 remaining. A 3-pointer by Currye at the 5:36 mark pushed the lead to 10 at 74-64.

UCA got it back to four on a jumper in the lane by Nevels in the finals seconds but could get no closer.

The Bears host McNeese State at 6 p.m. Saturday.