UCA cut the lead to two when Joey Cortez, who finished with a team-high 20 points, drove into the lane and hit a layup to make it 55-53 with 1:10 left.
Two turnovers and a flurry of missed shots in the remaining 1:10 led to the Bears eventual downfall.
“We just let that one kind of slip away,” Cortez said. “It was just a total lack of team concentration tonight. I don’t think we ran one play right out of the huddle tonight. I don’t think it’s anything we can put our finger on, but you can’t wait until the last two minutes to start playing defense. This was a real wake up call for us.”
There weren’t many bright spots for the Bears on Thursday. They turned the ball over 18 times, to only seven assists. However, they did cause 18 turnovers.
“This was just a lackluster effort tonight,” coach Rand Chappell said. “It was lackluster from the first play. There were inspired moments and I’ proud that we competed for the last five minutes.”
The Bears were once again without leading scorer Darryl Jones, who has been sick.
“We’re a pretty good team that’s got to be on top of its game to win,” Chappell said.
Cortez shot 10-of-13 from the free throw line and grabbed five rebounds to go with his 20 points.
“[Cortez] had some positive plays, but we need them from a lot of people,” Chappell said. “I don’t know if anyone gets five starts for the evening.”
The Bears trailed 32-29 at the half and were shooting 45.5 percent despite the offense looking sluggish. HSU shot 50 percent in the first half.
In the second half the Reddies turned up their offense and shot 56.3 percent for the half. Kelvin Brown dominated the Bears with a career-high 28 points, 19 of which came in the second half.
HSU shot 50 percent from the 3-point line on the night.
“We had no consistency on the offensive end,” Chappell said. “I’m disappointed in the execution. When you execute you good shots, when you don’t you get shaky shots and we got shaky shots tonight. We didn’t have the consistent effort we needed for 40 minutes.”
Phillips had 14 points for the Bears on 6-of-10 shooting. Campbell had 10 points.
Brown was the only Reddie in double figures, but Johnson had nine points and six assists.
The Bears will try to right the ship Monday night when they have to travel to Searcy to take on Harding at 8 p.m.
“We let this one at home get away from us,” Cortez said. “We should have won this one and now we’re going to have to go to one of the toughest places to play in the country to try and get back on track.”
