HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana shot 66.7 percent in the second half to rally from an eight-point halftime deficit and take an 89-84 Southland Conference win over Central Arkansas Saturday night in the University Center.

    The Lions (14-10, 8-3 Southland) out-scored Central Arkansas 54-41 in the second half in completing the regular season sweep of the Bears.

    Senior forward Jordan Capps was 12-of-18 from the field in scoring a team-high 26 points for Southeastern. Senior guard Eddy Polanco contributed 19 points, going 11-for-11 from the free throw line. Senior guard Joshua Filmore hit five 3-pointers in finishing with 18 points. Junior forward Moses Greenwood added 13 points off the bench, 11 coming in the second half. Junior guard Keith Charleston grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds while junior guard Marlain Veal set a career high with 11 assists. The Lions shot 53.4 percent overall and had the bench out-score UCA's, 35-7.

    Mathieu Kamba had a double-double with a game-high 30 points and 10 rebounds for Central Arkansas (12-12, 6-5 Southland). Jordan Howard contributed 25 points while DeAndre Jones had 10.

    The Bears twice led by as many as 11 in the first half and took a 43-35 lead into the half. Southeastern opened the second half on a 15-4 run to take its first lead at 50-47 on a 3-pointer by senior guard Jabbar Singleton with 16:28 remaining. Howard gave Central Arkansas its final lead at 54-52 with a jumper at the 12:56 mark.

    The Lions went ahead for good at 61-57 as Polanco was fouled on a 3 from the top of the key and hit the free throw with 9:32 left. Two Capps free throws made it 67-61 with 6:19 remaining. Howard drove the baseline to cut the margin to 74-73 at the 3:19 mark. After a Greenwood layup, Kamba took a steal in for a dunk to pull the Bears to within 76-75 with 1:48 left.

    But Filmore and Polanco responded with 3s and Polanco hit four straight free throws to give Southeastern its biggest lead at 86-77 with 20 seconds left.

    Kamba had 18 points as Central Arkansas took a 43-35 halftime lead. Capps also had 18 points while Charleston grabbed nine boards.

    Kamba, Jones and Howard hit 3s and Howard added a layup to give the Bears a 15-6 lead with 16:22 left in the opening half. After Southeastern closed to within 19-13 on a Filmore 3, Koval knocked down a 3 to put UCA up 26-15 at the 10:38 mark.

    The Lions came back with an 8-2 run to pull to within 28-23 on a Capps layup with 6:53 remaining. The Bears went back up 41-30 on a Kamba jumper with 2:45 left. After a 3 by Filmore and two Polanco free throws, Thatch Unruh hit a jumper with 37 seconds left to give Central Arkansas the 43-35 lead at the break.
 
NOTES:
   Southeastern moved to 11-0 at home against Central Arkansas. The Lions now lead the series, 16-7.
 
   It was the highest scoring Southland Conference game for the Lions since a 93-81 win over New Orleans on Feb. 24, 2016.
 
   Polanco was perfect from the line on at least 10 attempts for the second time this season. He was 10-of-10 against Centenary.
  
QUOTES:
Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner:
   "Like we said in pregame, something was going to have to give. They are a high-scoring offense and we have a good defense. When the other team shoots 61 percent (in the first half) that is unacceptable. Our effort wasn't good. We didn't change anything at halftime other than our attitude and our effort. There was nothing put up on the board. We ran the same defense, they ran the same offense in the second half, and we just did a much better job. We appealed to our players' pride at halftime and I thought we just played with more effort and spunk. I was proud of the way we bounced back in the second half because this was a huge, huge win for us."
 
UP NEXT:
   Southeastern travels to San Antonio, Texas on Wednesday to play Incarnate Word at 7 p.m. in the McDermott Center.