BEAUMONT — Fresh off their first road win of the season, the Lamar Cardinals knew it was important to open up their four-game homestead on a positive note.

   It was not pretty but paced by Justin Nabors' eighth double-double in Southland Conference play, Lamar did enough to preserve a 73-65 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Wednesday night in the Montagne Center.

   Nabors tallied 24 points and 11 rebounds, leading Lamar in both categories. Up 64-62 with 2:07 remaining in the contest, the 6-7 senior made a nice reverse layup that sparked a critical 7-0 spurt over the next 1:25 that lifted the Cardinals advantage to 71-62.

   The final three points of that push came on an old fashion 3-point play from Nabors, who received a long inbounds pass from forward Charlie Harper.

   UCA's Mitch Rueter connected on his fourth and final trey in the game to end a 2 minute scoring drought for his team. That shot cut the Bears deficit to 71-65 with 29 ticks left on the clock but Lamar responded by breaking the press with a second long inbounds pass that changed hands twice before Harris dropped in the final two points of the game.

   The win moved the Cards' SLC record to 4-4 and their overall mark to 12-11. Along with back-to-back wins and getting to .500 in the conference, Lamar is one win away from patching up the three-game skid that had the team at 2-4 before Saturday's victory at UT-San Antonio. The Cardinals also improved their all-time record against UCA to 6-0.

   Meanwhile, the Bears woeful season continues, as their league record falls to 1-7. They did not go without a fight on Wednesday, however. Using a 15-5 march over a little more than 4 minutes of play (18:25 to 13:52), UCA completely erased the 11-point lead that Lamar built in the first half.

    That run trimmed Lamar's advantage to 48-47 but it never surrendered the lead despite going nearly 7 minutes without a field goal.

    Luckily for the Cards, the Bears suffered similar shooting troubles, as they made just two baskets in the same time lapse that Lamar went cold.

    In reference to both the game and the entire season, Lamar coach Steve Roccaforte said his team could have let go of the rope Wednesday. Instead, he said they were able to gut it out.

   "We showed enough guts tonight to get the win," explained Roccaforte whose team will host Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. Saturday. "We made some critical, key stops and enough plays down the stretch to get the win."

    The Lamar chief added that he would have liked for his team to have continued building on their halftime spread but was satisfied with the way his team weathered the storm.

    "They went to a zone and pressed us a little in the second half and really made us earn some tough buckets," Roccaforte said. "But again, we made the key plays. It was really a huge win for us."

    Nabors, who recorded his 11th double-double of the season, called the victory ugly but effective.

    "We'll take it. That's what's important in the end," explained Nabors, who was 8-for-13 from the field and 2-for-2 from behind the arc. "We got the lead and did not do a good job protecting it, you know. I'm not going to say we got lazy on defense but I think we probably lost some of our focus, maybe got too comfortable with the lead we had."

    Nabors and teammate Anthony Miles each played all 40 minutes of the contest. Miles chipped in with 15 points despite shooting 3-for-10 from the field. He did make 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. Lamar was 18-of-21 at the line as a team, an area that Roccaforte was happy with.

    Also in double figures, Charlie Harper pitched in 11 points.

    But Nabors was clearly the backbone of the win, as he came up with big plays throughout the contest, including hitting a 3-pointer 9:30 into the first half that locked the game at 16-16 and ended an 8-0 run by the Bears.

    Lamar took the lead after Nabors, who is averaging 17.1 points and 10.4 rebounds in conference this season, followed his three with a pair of free throws. From there, UCA would tie the game twice at 18-18 and 21-21 but put together a 16-4 run over 4 minutes of action to claim a 37-25 advantage with 1:29 left.

    Rueter, who scored 23 points for the game, bagged a trey in the final minute of the half to cut the game to 37-28 but Miles dropped in a jumper with 25 seconds remaining to give his team a 39-28 lead at the break.