UCA'S TOURNAMENT RUN ENDS WITH LOSS TO SFA

[Seminole Indian]

KATY, Texas _  The upstart team ran into the established program on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament at the Merrell Center, and the veterans earned the victory.

The perennial postseason team, Stephen F. Austin, ended the tournament run of the University of Central Arkansas Bears 86-64 to advance to the semifinals against No. 2 seed Nicholls State. SFA was making its 13th consecutive appearance and 22nd overall, while UCA was in just its third SLC Tournament.

The Bears (17-16), who had won the school's first tournament game on Wednesday, may or may not have ended their season with the loss. There is a possibility the Bears could receive an invitation to play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament next week and continue their Postseason Run presented by First Security Bank.

"We think we have an opportunity, possibly in the CBI,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell, who led the Bears to an NCAA Division I-best 17 victories in his fourth season. "We have been in contact, but haven't gotten an official offer yet. But the indications are we are in the running and we think we have a great shot of getting in. Hopefully we'll know something within the next 24 hours or so so we can make arrangements to get where we're going.'

The Bears would welcome another opportunity to wear the purple and gray after the third-seeded Lumberjacks (26-6) beat the Bears by 20-plus points for the second time in less than a month after UCA won the first meeting of the season 100-92. The SFA defense shut down the UCA offense, limiting SLC Player of the Year Jordan Howard to a season-low 10 points _ none in the second half _ and holding the Bears to 38.8-percent shooting.

The biggest issue for the Bears was rebounding as the Lumberjacks held a 45-24 overall advantage and pulled down 20 offensive rebounds, outscoring the Bears 22-5 in second-chance points.

"We got beat by a better team,' said Pennell. "They were faster than us, they were stronger than us. And the only thing we can do about that is get bigger and faster and stronger. They have been the standard in this league for several years now, and they're what every team wants to be. And we're getting closer to that, but we're obviously not there yet.'

The Bears grabbed an early 8-5 lead before the Lumberjacks put together an 18-2 run, good for a 23-10 lead with 11:40 remaining in the first half. The Bears, who shot just 39.1 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, got back with nine points in the final minute of the half behind four straight points from Howard that made it 43-34. SFA got its fifth three-pointer of the half with 45 seconds left to set the halftime margin at 46-34. The Bears never got closer than 12 points in the second half.

Howard, the record-setting guard from Chandler, Ariz., finished with 10 points, giving him double figures in every game this season and in 118 of his 122 career games. He scored 43 points against the Lumberjacks in UCA's win at the Farris Center on Jan. 24. Fellow senior Mathieu Kamba from Calgary, Alberta, finished with a team-high 14 points and team-high 6 rebounds, while redshirt freshman Jared Chatham provided a spark off the bench in the second half and scored nine points.

The Bears made consecutive SLC tournaments for the first time and won their first postseason game, knocking off sixth-seeded Lamar 67-57 in Wednesday's first round. UCA won a record 10 conference games during the regular season and recorded a program best 16 Division I victories, including its first win over a Power Five school (California) back in December.

"I told them in the locker room, four years ago basically it was like we started a new basketball program,' Pennell said. "It would be like UCA never had a basketball team and they just said we want to start one. And the fact that we are where we're at in Year 4, is probably close to a miracle. And sometimes I don't look at it that way, because I wanted to win this much in Year 1.

"But my plight as a coach in this business has always been to build a program. And I've rarely ever built a program and got to see it through. And that's what is exciting to me about UCA is that I think we have it on solid footing. We haven't arrived yet, we're not Stephen F. Austin yet. But we've closed the gap. I think we have grown, we're competitive now, I think the opponents know that we're a legitimate team. We've recruited well.

"And the fact that we won 17 games... that was the total of the first three years. So we won as many games this year as we won in the first three years. I think that's a big thing and something we need to hang our hat on. They're disappointed and I know they're upset. They should be, we're never going to be happy with losing. But you also have to sometimes, when you're climbing the mountain, look down and see how far you've climbed.

"So I think we're moving in the right direction and I'm happy with the progress of the program.'

http://www.ucasports.com/news/2018/3/8/mens-basketball-ucas-tournament-run-ends-with-loss-to-sfa.aspx