Bears take home opener
The University of Central Arkansas Bears had three players in double figures and dominated the rebounding on both ends of the court in a 74-57 victory over Bacone College on Wednesday night at the Farris Center.
UCA (1-0) got 19 points from junior guard Marcus Pillow, 16 from junior forward Mitch Rueter and 14 more from sophomore forward Chris Brown in his first action for UCA. The Bears outrebounded the Warriors
53-26, with senior center Brian Marks pulling down a game-high 12.
"It was definitely a positive that those three guys, Mitch, Marcus and Chris, ended up in double figures,' said UCA head coach Rand Chappell. "If we're going to be successful, those three are going to have to go out and put some points on the board and get some shooting confidence.
"We ended up shooting 44 percent, which after shooting 20 (percent) in the first game, you feel like you really made some. But we still need to improve there. I saw some positive things we can build on but I also saw about a million things we need to work on.'
The Warriors, a scrappy squad that was outsized at every position, held their own for most of the first half, but ended up trailing 35-21 at halftime. Bacone then came out with a 10-0 scoring run to start the second half and cut the deficit to 35-31 on a steal by Stephen Richardson and a jumper by Chad Tyler.
The Bears slowly built it back to as much as a 16-point lead over the next 10 minutes, with the help of three of Pillow's three-pointers, and settled for the 17-point victory after freshman Chris Henson's basket in the final seconds.
"Bacone has a nice group of athletes,' Chappell said, "and two very talented offensive guys in (Ronnie) Battle and (Chad) Tyler. They both were averaging right near 20 points a game and they ended up hitting right at that. But we made them take a lot of shots to do it.'
Battle, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward, led all scorers with 22 points but was only 9 of 23 from the field and 2 of 9 from three-point range. Tyler, a 5-11 sophomore guard, made 5 of 17 from the field and was 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.
UCA transfer guard Mike Pouncy, a 6-1 junior from Jacksonville College, came off the bench and made 4 of 5 from the field for 8 points and added 5 rebounds.
"Coming off his injury like he is, we may not see the best of Mike Pouncy until we get into conference season,' Chappell said of his guard who returned last week from a broken foot. "But we do need his athleticism, his strength and his ability to attack the basket.'
The Bears are at home again Saturday night when they host UNC Greensboro following the Bears football game. Game time is expected to be 7:30 p.m.