Mar 4th, 2007 06:05AM
by:

By STEVE EAST
UCA SID

CONWAY — Not many basketball teams can squander a 30-point lead and live to tell about it.

The University of Central Arkansas Bears did just that Saturday night. The Bears, up by 30 early in the second half, survived to end their first NCAA Division I season with an improbable 92-86 victory over Northwestern State at the Farris Center.

“It was obviously a wild, entertaining game," said UCA Coach Rand Chappell. “To blow the entire lead and then to show the character we did to come back and win it, that was nice. I thought it was definitely a character win."

The Bears (10-20, 4-12) did very little wrong in the first half in running out to a 51-24 lead at halftime. They made 7 of 13 from 3-point range and shot 54.8 percent overall. Defensively, they held one of the Southland Conference’s top scoring teams to seven field goals, a season-low 24 points and 26.9 percent shooting.

A 3-pointer by UCA junior Nate Bowie in the first minute of the second half gave UCA a seemingly comfortable 54-24 lead.

But from there, it nearly got away from the Bears. The Demons (15-14, 10-6), the SLC East Division champion, outscored the Bears 52-22 over the next 15 minutes and pulled into a 76-76 tie with four minutes remaining.

The Bears, newcomers in the SLC, responded and only allowed the Demons a one-point lead twice, with 3:11 left and again with 2:32 remaining. UCA also played the final 9:44 without its top player after junior Durrell Nevels fouled out. Nevels, from Hot Springs, left with 9 points, 10 rebounds and a school record-tying 7 blocked shots. He finished one short of tying the career blocked shot record of 100 in just his first season at UCA.

Without Nevels, the Bears turned to guards Bowie, freshman Marcus Pillow and senior Fred Campbell, playing his final game at UCA. Bowie scored a career-high 29 points (4 of 10 on 3-pointers), while Pillow had 23 points (3 of 6 on 3s). Campbell, known as the Bears’ defensivestopper, closed out his career with 12 points.
       
“I knew it would be a tough second half," Chappell said. “Northwestern has a lot of character on their team, a lot of pride. At halftime, we really put the emphasis on the defensive end. If  you keep playing defense, they can’t catch you. The problem with that was, we started getting everybody in foul trouble. Then the guys had to start playing kind of tentatively on defense."

After NSU had closed it to one point at 85-84 with 1:10 on the clock, Pillow made a driving basket and was fouled. His free throw with :16 left gave the Bears an 88-84 lead. But point guard Kennan Jones scored inside for the Demons and was fouled. He missed his free throw and UCA secured the rebounded.

Sophomore Mitch Rueter was fouled and made both free throws for an 89-86 lead with seven seconds left. NSU turned the ball over at midcourt and Bowie put in a layup at the buzzer to set the final. The 92 points was a season high for the Bears, who came in averaging 64.3 points per game.

The Bears eventually lost backup center DeMarcus Bell to fouls with with just more than two minutes left. UCA, already playing without senior center Fernando Johnson, out with a broken thumb, had three other players (two starters) finish the game with four fouls.

Trey Gilder led the Demons with 19 points, 16 of those in the second half when NSU shot 59.6 percent. Leading scorer Luke Rogers followed with 18 points but played only 24 minutes because of foul trouble. Jones added 12 points and Jermaine Spencer 10.