Sports

Golden Lions bounce back with win over Prairie View A&M

By Jeremy Muck/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, February 23, 2008 11:36 PM CST

To get themselves back on track Saturday night, the Arkansas-Pine Bluff men’s basketball team went long-distance at H.O. Clemmons Arena.

Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald UAPB's George Davis and Prairie View's Tarrence Garrison battle for the loose ball in the lane Saturday night at Hyper Complex at UAPB.

The Golden Lions made a season-tying 10 three-pointers in Saturday night’s 70-54 victory against Prairie View A&M. After losing four of their last six games in the month of February, the Golden Lions went downtown in order to stay in the race for a top four seed in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament Saturday night.

With the victory, UAPB (12-13, 8-6 SWAC) improves to 8-6 in the SWAC and remains in third place in the conference race behind Alabama State (14-9, 10-3 SWAC) and Jackson State (11-16, 9-5 SWAC).

“We shot the ball pretty well,” UAPB head coach Van Holt said. “In the first half, I told the guys I looked at the stat sheet and said we shot 15 threes. I told them that was too many. And then I looked down and seen how many we made.”

UAPB was 10-of-25 (40 percent) from three-point range Saturday night. The Golden Lions shot 41.4 percent (24-of-58) from the field in the win.

Larry Williams led UAPB with 15 points. He hit four three-pointers against Prairie View A&M. William Byrd scored 12 points and grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds. Marcelle Goins had 10 points. Tim Hamilton and Cory Norman each added eight points for the Golden Lions.

Prairie View A&M (7-18, 5-8 SWAC) shot 40.4 percent (21-of-52) Saturday night. The Panthers were led by Blake Thompson with 14 points. Derek Johnson added 10 points in the loss.

The Golden Lions started the three-point show in the first half. UAPB hit seven three-pointers in the first half, which came from five different Golden Lions. Williams drained three treys to lead the Golden Lions with nine points in the opening 20 minutes of action. Norman and Antonio Ootesey, who have not seen a lot of playing time this season, got into the act, as they each hit from three-point range once. Allen Smith, who had earned more playing time in the last couple of weeks, came off the bench to knock down a three-pointer in his only shot attempt of the first half. Goins gave UAPB the lead at 9-8 with a three-pointer and the Golden Lions would not relinquish the lead the rest of the half.

UAPB led 40-27 at halftime. The Golden Lions shot 44.4 percent (12-of-27) from the field and went to the line 15 times in the first half, shooting 60 percent (9-of-15) from the charity stripe. Byrd’s two free throws with 3:23 left in the first half gave UAPB a 17-point lead at 40-23.

Norman’s second trey of the night gave UAPB a 21-point lead at 57-36 with 12:49 left in the second half. Williams’ fourth three-pointer of the night was UAPB’s 10th of the game, which tied a season-high set on Nov. 13 at Wichita State. Williams’ trey increased the Golden Lions’ lead to 63-38.

The Golden Lions knew that they needed a good performance on Saturday night to get back on track in the competitive SWAC.

“At this point of the season, you want to get something going in a positive way for the tournament,” Holt said. “I thought this was a good beginning. Prairie View played well the last two or three ballgames and defeated Jackson State and Grambling. They did an extremely good job and they came in here and I respected them. I didn’t fear them, but I really respected them. They average 70-75 points per game.

"I was proud of our defensive effort. We held them to 53, 54 points, whatever it was. So that’s good for us. We want to try to be more of a defensive team. If we shoot the ball well, that’s a plus for us. We’ve got to be able to control our opponents’ main scorers and shut down their role players. That’s basically our defensive game most of the time, to control the team’s better scorers and shut down their role players.”

UAPB returns to action Monday night against Texas Southern at 6 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU, which is not available on Pine Bluff Cable TV. To accommodate the men’s game time change, the Lady Lions-Texas Southern contest has been moved to 8 p.m.

“We start five seniors,” Holt said. “There’s not a whole lot you can say to fire up five seniors who have been with us for five years. They’ve played in championship games in the conference, semifinal games in the tournament, quarterfinals in the tournament. So they’ve been there a number of times. I’m not a rah-rah type of coach. I’m not going to get them sky high when they jump out of the window and expect them to get hurt.

“For every high, there’s an equal low. I want them to play at a certain level and turn it up when it is necessary.”

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