UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

EKU@UCA; Liberty@UCA

Nice win by 83-76 with Chatham going a fabulous 36/16/3A/1S......wow....Hunter was a strong 19/4/4A/4S.....Kayouloud solid game at 11/6....Cooper added 9 and Kilntman grabbed 6 rebs....

LU 34-51=85 (11-3/20-9)
UCA 32-34=68 (6-8/9-18)

https://ucasports.com/news/2022/2/21/mens-basketball-bears-battle-east-leader-before-falling.aspx

UCA/LU:

FG%: 41% v 56% ... LU +7 made 2s
3s%: 32% v 42% ... LU +3 made
FT%: 73% v 88% ... Bears +4 made
Rebs: 3-24/27 v 4-34/38 ... neither team did much on o-boards...but LU got about 7 extra possessions with d-rebs
TO: 13 v 15 ... Bears+9 POTO for good efficiency

Hard to win when other team gets more shots and shoots 56%... Bears led most of first 25-26 minutes...then LU lit up from outside and won last 14 minutes by 31-11....ASUN leading scorer went 36/7 with 6/16 3s plus 6/11 2s and 4/5 FTs....pretty good shooter....Cooper led Bears with 17...Chatham another strong game at 16/5....Kayouloud had a solid game at 12/6....Hunter solid at 12/5/8A.....

Beras finish on road at UNA on Wed at 6pm and at Lipscomb on Sat at 1pm...really need to win both to end up 8-8 in ASUN....

Liberty (11-3), Jacksonville (10-4), Jacksonville State (11-3) and Bellarmine (10-4) have first four seeds wrapped up.....next four comes down to this week....

UCA (6-8) at UNA (2-12) and Lipscomb (5-9)
FGCU (8-6) at LU (11-3) next then at Jacksonville (10-4)...probably end up 8-8
KSU (6-8) get Stetson (5-9) at home then at LU (11-3) ... maybe ends up 7-9
North Florida (6-8) get Jacksonville (10-4) on road then at Stetson (5-9) ... best probably 7-9
Stetson (5-9) at KSU (6-8) then home vs North Florida (6-8)....maybe ends up 7-9
Lipscomb (5-9).....gets Bellarmine next on road (10-4) and UCA (6-8) at home ... best likely 6-10)

Above gets FGCU as 5th seed.....if UCA wins out the Bears are 6th seed....if Bears end up 7-9 then tie breaker decides vs KSU, North Florida and Stetson....thus, need to win out....Go Bears!!

UCA@UNA, 2/23/22

UCA 47-37=81 (7-8/10-18)
UNA 37-35=72 (2-13/9-19)

https://ucasports.com/news/2022/2/23/mens-basketball-gritty-win-earns-bears-home-berth-in-tourney.aspx

UCA/UNA:

FG%: 48% v 39% ... UCA +8 made 2s
3s% 27% v 33% ... UNA +2 made
FT%: 86% v 81% ... UNA +1 made
Rebs: 11-31/42 v 10-24/34 ... UNA +10 2nd chance...
TO: 11 v 10 ... UNA +7 POTO

Good road win.....should have won and did....missing 2-3 players....Hunter led with s strong double double at 24/16/3/3S (did have 5 TOs) ... 10-13 FGs ... Kayouloud another very fine game at 21/9/3A ... Olowokere a solid 13/7 and Chatham solid as well 12/5 ...

Sewed up 3rd seed in West and get home game next Tuesday at FC.....apparently vs either Stetson or North Florida....Go Bears!!

#6 East Stetson @ #3 West UCA
ASUN Tourney, Round 1

https://ucasports.com/news/2022/3/1/mens-basketball-bears-storm-to-tournament-win-over-hatters.aspx

SU 40-33=73
UCA 30-44=74

UCA/SU:

FG%: 41% v 50% ... Bears +3 made 2s
3s%: 25% v 50% ... Hatters +4 made 3s
FT%: 90% v 67% ... Bears +1 made FTs....9/10 from the line...the actual difference
Rebs: 20-24/44 v 6-22/28 ... very very good rebounding ... Bears +21 2nd chance points
TO: 11 v 12 ... Stetson +2 POTO

This was a team effort with very good defense in last 10-12 minutes...we were 1-13 3s at half and got to 1-15 before we finished with 6-10....Hatters had two guys who were very smoother perimeter shooters and who we generally let then shoot 22-feet 3s in order to defend the paint...they never really slowed down but we finally hit 4 huge 3s that kept us in the game, closed the gap and get the lead twice late....we and Stetson seemed to be a pretty good matchup...we had won by 79-75 earlier after building a 15 point lead and nearly letting them catch up at the end...

Cooper had a fine 21/3/2A/2S game including 5-10 10s.....star of the game in my book with his 2nd half...Kayouloud was very solid at 17/11 double double ...Hall also solid at 13/4 game...Hunter and Chatham only scored 8 and 6 BUT were 6-6 FTs and grabbed 14 rebs....Baker played 8 minutes and scored 5 big points down the stretch including a pull up 3...Olowekere only played 9 minutes but scored 4 with 2 rebs.....Kilintman did not score but played 20 minutes to rest Kayouloud, Chatman and Hall which paid off at the end....the five starters avg 33 minutes and the bench played quality minutes...I thought Coach did a good job in subbing...

D1 basketball is a tough game...Stetson's guard Christiann Jones goes 5-9 on FGs with 3-3 3s.....then shoots his only FTs with less than 3 seconds and misses both....

The long trip to Jacksonville sets up a rematch for the game we lost there by 20 earlier (Jax led by 4 at half)..while the Dolphins are the favorite for sure, recall that Darious Hall did not play in that game...bench played 49 minutes for Bears and scored 3....maybe if Hall had played 20 of those this would have a 50-50 game at the end...

I had not seen the Bears in person since about 2018 and really wanted to see Chatham and Kayouloud for sure and was not disappointed...both impressed...Chatham was pretty smooth and attracted a lot of attention from Stetson and Kayouloud is built more like a defensive tackle than forward but did he ever hustle and mix it up...Hall, Cooper and Hunter each looked like very solid players...the other off the bench had their moments and showed good potential....

Let's go steal a game......Go Bears!!

ASUN Tourney

Championship, 3/8/22

#2E Jacksonville (21-9) @ #2W Bellarmine (19-13)

Round 3:

#2E Jacksonville @ #1W Jacksonville State, 54-51
#2W Bellarmine @ #1E Liberty, 53-50

Round 2:

#3W UCA @ #2E Jacksonville, 69-79

Bears fall behind in Q1 then stabilize the margin and make a late push to get within 5...could not close further and Jacksonville shoot Fts at end for the 10-point margin...Hall leads with 18....Kayouloud closes out with a fine 17/6 and Chatham finishes at a solid 15/6...Dolphins shoot and make 4 more shots on 4 more rebs and 4 fewer TOs....a game of "little things".....

#4W Lipscomb @ #1E Liberty, 47-52
#3E FGCU @ #2W Bellarmine, 68-81
#4E Kennesaw State @ #1W Jacksonville State, 67-78

Hats off to Coach Boone and his staff for their first season in the ASUN!. Exciting young group of fellows. Bright future ahead Bears