LAKE CHARLES – McNeese squandered away an 11-point lead with 12 minutes to play while three Central Arkansas players scored 20 or more points to lead the Bears to a second half comeback win over the Cowboys, 88-82 here Monday night in Burton Coliseum.
 
The loss was the fourth straight suffered by the Cowboys (6-19, 4-11 SLC) and third straight loss at home. UCA (7-17, 6-8) won for just the second time away from home while snapping a two-game losing streak to the Cowboys.
 
McNeese shot just 38 percent from the floor (26 of 68) but 17 of those misses were layups, several of those uncontested. The Cowboys hit just 7 of 24 layups in the game. 
 
"We missed a lot of layups," said Dave Simmons. "We have to figure out how to close out games. We missed tons and tons of shots in the paint."
 
James Harvey led the Cowboys with 18 points, 13 of those coming in the first half. Jamaya Burr added 17 and Jarren Greenwood 15. Craig McFerrin grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds while Stephen Ugochukwu swatted away a career-high four blocked shots.
 
Jordan Howard led UCA with 24 points. Derreck Brooks added 23 and Mathieu Kamba scored 20.
 
"It's been a while since I've seen anything like that," said Simmons. "Jordan Howard is one of the better players in the conference."
 
McNeese came out on fire in the first half and led 46-39 at the break. It was the most points scored by the Cowboys in the first 20 minutes this season. The Cowboys were fronted better in the second half, especially with a tighter defense on Harvey and Greenwood, and were held to just 30 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.
 
But despite that, the Cowboys still appeared to have control for much of the second half and led by 10 or more three different times in the half, the last coming after a McFerrin tip-in to make it 66-55 with 12:22 to play.
 
UCA followed that with seven straight points behind a Justin Foreman three, two Brooks free throws and a tip-in by Jake Zuilhof to cut the margin to 66-62 with 10:48 to play.
 
The Bears took their first lead of the game after a Howard layup made it 73-72 with 5:16 to play and went up by 3 following a Brooks jumper to cap off a 7-0 run.
 
McNeese took its final lead after a couple of Harvey free throws to make it 79-78 with 2:30 to play.
 
UCA then outscored the Cowboys 10-3 the rest of the way.
 
The Bears ended the game hitting 51 percent from the field (29 of 57) including 55 percent  (16 of 29) in the second half. The Bears held a 42-31 in rebounds and scored 13 second chance points of 11 offensive boards. Zuilhof had 15 of UCA's rebounds to lead the team.
 
McNeese hit 10 of 28 from 3-point range for the game, 8 of 17 in the first half but made just 2 of 11 in the second.
 
Next up, the Cowboys will close out their home slate on Saturday when they host Nicholls at 3 p.m. Four McNeese seniors will be recognized in a pregame ceremony while two former greats, John Rudd and the late Edmond Lawrence, will have their numbers honored with the dropping of banners at halftime of the game.