CONWAY, Ark. – Aaron Weidenaar hit three free throws with 1.5 seconds on the clock and Central Arkansas finished the game on a 7-1 run to pick up a 67-65 win over Sam Houston State on Saturday afternoon at the Farris Center.

Three Bearkats (9-6, 0-2 SLC) finished in double figures, led by 13 from Torry Butler, but Sam Houston was mired by a slow start and 4-for-22 shooting from beyond the arc.

UCA (2-12, 1-0 SLC) was led by Jordan Howard's 29 points, while both Derreck Brooks and Ethan Lee picked up 14 rebounds each in helping the Bears win the battle on the glass 49-45.

HOW IT HAPPENED
It took Sam Houston more than eight minutes to get its first field goal of the game, missing its first 15 shots before a Jamal Williams' three-point play with 11:53 to go in the half ended the drought. But the Sam Houston defense kept the Bears to just 3-for-14 from the field in the first eight minutes before the Bearkat offense finally got something going midway through the half.

After UCA had taken a 20-12 lead on a pair of foul shots, the Kats held the Bears off the scoreboard for nearly six minutes and went on a 10-0 run of its own with five points coming from Torry Butler, taking its first lead of the game with just over four minutes to play on a transition layup from Paul Baxter.

Sam Houston finished the half hitting just 28.6 percent from the floor, but still held a late lead before the break before UCA's Aaron Weidenaar nailed a triple just before the halftime buzzer to give UCA a 30-28 edge.  

The second period saw the Bearkats show signs of breaking out of its recent shooting slump as Josh Delany and Dakarai Henderson combined to nail three triples in the early going, but despite finding the touch from distance the Kats could not muster more than a four-point lead at any point.

Sam Houston held a 64-60 lead with 2:29 to play after consecutive scores from Butler, but it took UCA less than a minute to tie it back up on free throws from Howard and a jumper from Mathieu Kamba. The teams then traded defensive stops and it looked as though Sam Houston would pull out the win after Paul Baxter picked off a pass and advanced it to John Dewey who was fouled with 6.7 seconds left.

Dewey made one of two foul shots to put Sam Houston up 65-64, but the Kats could not get the one final stop as Weidenaar was fouled with just 1.5 seconds left on a three-point try from the right corner. From there he netted all three freebies before Delaney's desperation heave at the buzzer was no good.

KEY STATS
It was the third straight difficult game from three-point range for Sam Houston, going just 4-for-22 from distance. The Kats finished the game hitting just 3.04 percent for the game, which was hampered by missing their first 15 shots of the game from the floor. Sam held advantages in points in the paint (32-18), bench points (46-9), fast break points (12-4) and turned 22 Bear turnovers into a 17-5 edge in that category.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Butler led the Kats with 13 points and six boards, while Chris Galbreath Jr. and Jovante' Spivey had 11 apiece off the bench with Galbreath adding a team-best nine rebounds.

UP NEXT
The Bearkats will play a pair of league games next week, beginning Thursday when they head to Lake Charles, La., to take on McNeese at Burton Coliseum before returning home for a Saturday meeting with Nicholls at.