BEAUMONT — Hayden Koval was left with the task of winning the game for Central Arkansas with 0.1 second left.

He calmly made the first free throw, but looked shaky on the second and drew iron to bring up overtime.

His fellow Bears bailed him out — after the second overtime.

Colton Weisbrod finished with a career-high 38 points, nearly one year to the day of his previous best, but free-throw shooting came back to haunt Lamar and UCA escaped the Montagne Center with a 100-91 double-overtime win Saturday.

Weisbrod, who also had 11 rebounds and three assists, scored 34 against Southeastern Louisiana last Jan. 7.

Double overtime was pretty deserving of a game pitting two Southland Conference teams that picked up wins over big-name teams earlier this season. Lamar (10-7, 2-2 Southland) opened the season winning 74-67 at Tulsa, and UCA (8-9, 2-2) — which was seconds away from shocking UCLA before losing 106-101 in overtime — dominated California 96-69 in Berkeley.

Just three seasons ago, UCA limped to a 2-27 record. Former Arizona assistant Russ Pennell, who took over for Lute Olson on an interim basis in the 2008-09 season, has now matched his single-season high for wins in his fourth year. (UCA was 8-24 last season.)

It helps the Bears that they have senior guard Jordan Howard on their side.

Howard, the sixth-leading scorer in the nation going into Saturday, finished with 27 points, topping his 23.6-point per game average, and added seven rebounds. But senior Zjori Bosha held him scoreless for the first 14 minutes.

Lamar led by as much as 34-27 with 6:19 left in the first half in a game that saw 16 lead changes and 15 ties. The Cardinals were ahead 41-39 at halftime, but the Bears opened up the second half with a 6-0 rally.

Weisbrod appeared for a moment to be the hero after making two free throws with 19 seconds left to put Lamar up 80-79. Lamar’s Torey Noel managed to strip DeAndre Jones on his way to the basket with 7.3 seconds left, but Koval rebounded a deflected three-point attempt by Howard and went to the line after Josh Nzeakor was called on an apparent tie-up for the rebound.

The Cardinals did themselves no favors in overtime, making 4 of 8 free throws. (Weisbrod was 4 for 6 in the period and 16 for 22 for the game.) They finished 25 for 38 for the game, compared to the Bears’ 19 for 28.

Weisbrod drove for a layup to tie the game 86-all at the 1:06 mark, but after a steal by Koval on the left wins with 27.6 seconds remaining, Thatch Unruh missed a three and Joey Frenchwood’s three-quarter shot missed just right to force a second overtime.

Unruh hit a trey 9 seconds into the second extra period before Weisbrod hit two more free throws to close the gap to 89-88. Lamar wouldn’t get any closer.

Jones completed a three-point play to make it 92-88 and knocked down a three-point dagger with 1:30 to go. Matthew Mondesir’s drive to the hole with 34 seconds left capped off the Bears’ win.

Jones registered a triple-double with 13 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds. Mathieu Kamba added 15 points and Unruh 12 in the win.

Noel and Bosha each scored 11 points for Lamar. Nick Garth added nine, but went 0 for 9 from three-point range.

Lamar will host Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews