The win puts UAM (17-8, 10-4) No. 2 in the GSC West and drops the Bears (16-9, 9-6) to No. 3.
The Boll Weevils have worked into a rotation of just seven players and that rotation worked to near perfection Monday night with five players in double figures and one with 9 points.
Billy McDaniel led the charge for UAM with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Brandon Mayweather, DeMarcus Wilson and J.B. Williams all finished with 11 points.
Torre Doty, fresh off an 0-for-2, no-point performance last Thursday at Southern Arkansas contributed 10 points for the Weevils.
“He owed me a good game after the way he played the other night,” UAM coach Mike Newell said. “He looked like a retard out there. But he made some good baskets tonight.”
Chappell wasn’t expecting Doty to contribute much either.
“They had some guys that stepped up for them tonight,” he said. “[Doty] had 10 points in 16 minutes and his average is about 2.”
Newell said he’s got his rotation down to seven or eight and “That’s who we’re gonna go with.”
Mike Newell’s son, Nate, finished with 9 points on 3-of-8 shooting. The only Weevil not to score was Derek Easter.
The Bears shot poorly all night, going 9-of-26 in the first half, 16-of-40 in the second. The Bears were 3-of-15 from the 3-point line for the game.
UAM dominated the first six minutes of the game, exploding to a 10-0 lead with 13:30 left to go in the first half. UCA scored its first points of the game when Darryl Jones hit a pair of free throws with 13:09 remaining. Back-to-back 3s from Aubrey Bruner and Fred Campbell cut the UAM lead to 12-8.
The Boll Weevils hit three more 3s in the half and pulled out to a 25-14 lead with 5:47 to go. Jones scored 5 straight to cut the lead to 25-19. Joey Cortez was able to slice the lead down even more to, 27-23, before the Boll Weevils went on a 6-0 run to end the half. UAM went into the locker room with a 10-point advantage, 33-23.
The second half was full of runs, but the Bears were never able to take the lead away from the Weevils.
UCA cut the lead to two with 12:30 left in the second half after Bruner started and finished a 6-0 run to make the score 38-36, UAM.
The Weevils then went on an 11-0 run to take a 51-39 lead with 8:48 to go. The Bears went on a 10-4 run to cut the lead to 54-49 with 5:11 to go. They got to within three when Phillips hit a layup to make it 57-54 with 3:41 left.
That’s as close as the Bears would get.
With UAM leading 61-56 with 2:22 left Nate Newell missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Mayweather was able to tap it back in to give UAM a 63-56 lead. The Bears didn’t get anything out of their next possession and UAM closed on a 5-0 run to take a 69-60 lead.
With time running out Cortez went the length of the court and put in a layup to make it 69-60.
Stephin Booth led the Bears with 14 points and 5 rebounds.
“Stephin was very active tonight,” Chappell said. “He struggled a little bit early, but he got things going.”
Jones scored 10 points and had 5 rebounds. Cortez finished with 9 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds.
Jones was 1-of-5 from behind the arc, but Chappell said his shot selection wasn’t poor.
“[Jones] was wanting to get it going,” he said. “He’s been shooting the 3 well all season and the shots he chose to take weren’t really that poor. He just couldn’t get the ball in the bucket tonight.”
Thursday night the Bears close the GSC season against Southern Arkansas at the Farris Center. The Muleriders hung on to beat the Bears 60-57 on Jan. 26 in Magnolia. UCA scored just 12 points in the first half of that ballgame. This time, the Bears will be looking to stay within the top three of the conference standings with a win.
“Thursday night is a big game for us,” Chappell said. “We probably have to win to give us a chance to finish in the top three. We might not even lock it up then, but we definitely need to win. I guess we’ll circle the wagons and go to work.”
Delta State 74, UCA 69
CLEVELAND, Miss. — The Bears came out on fire last Thursday night and for the second time this season looked poised to upset the No. 4 Delta State Statesmen. But for the second time this season the Statesmen (23-1, 13-0) were able to come from behind and disrupt the Bears (16-8, 9-5) upset plans 74-69.
“The guys played extremely hard,” Chappell said. “We didn’t get as many easy shots in the second half and probably fell in love with the 3 a little bit too much. Obviously Delta State has all their accolades for a reason and we were just unable to combat that.”
UCA came out on fire, shooting 56.3 percent from the field in the first half and headed into the locker room with the adrenaline flowing as Phillips tipped in a last-second shot to give the Bears a 42-31 lead. UCA forced 14 turnovers in the first half.
“We shot the ball well and battled well,” Chappell said. “We forced a lot of turnovers in the first half and I told the guys [DSU] would get their butts chewed for that, but I think we caused that with our intensity.”
The second half was an entirely different story. The Statesmen slowly chipped away at the Bears 11-point advantage, but the Bears were able to keep the lead to at least seven for much of the early going in the second half.
But with 10:26 to go in the game, DSU’s Karl Nickerson hit a jumper to begin a 12-2 run that ended with a Jeremy Richardson layup and the Statesmen taking the lead, 63-60.
The teams traded buckets the next few possessions, until Cortez and Phillips missed two straight jumpers. DSU’s Victor Brown missed a free throw and the Bears still had life with 1:11 left. Then Jones, trying to make a move, was called for pushing off and the ball went back to the Okra.
Brown made up for his missed free throw by following a missed jumper with a dunk to give the Statesmen a 71-66 lead with 20 seconds left. Brown finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds coming off the bench for DSU.
Bruner was fouled and made just one of his two free throws. Two more DSU free throws, a Cortez coast-to-coast layup and one more Okra free throw ended the game.
The Bears shooting fell of significantly in the second half, shooting just 32 percent, 14.3 from beyond the arc. Delta continued to hit its shots in the second half, shooting 56.7 percent.
Delta put four guys in double figures. Jasper Johnson led the Okra with 15 points and 10 boards, Richardson had 14 and 7, and Turmaine Rice had 11 points.
The Bears were led by Cortez, who had 18 points. Phillips finished with 14 points and Bruner had 11.
In UCA’s first meeting with Delta State the Bears held a 10 point lead with five minutes to go before the Statesmen went on a 20-2 run to win the game by six. Chappell said playing DSU close twice shows the mettle of his team.
“I think it shows we’re pretty good,” he said. “We’ve played them tough both times this season and that team may be ranked No. 1 in the nation at the end of the year. I think that shows you that we’re a pretty good team.”
