Fans’ actions cost Golden Lions in loss to Texas Southern

By Jeremy Muck/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

The events Monday night at the H.O. Clemmons Arena proved that homecourt advantage isn’t always the best situation for the home team.

In fact, the home fans may have cost their team a key conference game.

The Arkansas-Pine Bluff men’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker to Texas Southern 77-76 in overtime Monday night. With the loss, UAPB (12-14, 8-7 Southwestern Athletic Conference) slipped to fourth place in the SWAC standings.

UAPB trailed 68-65 with 4.0 seconds remaining in regulation after the Tigers’ Sollie Norwood missed both free throws. William Byrd grabbed the rebound and passed the ball to Marcelle Goins, who launched the long three-point attempt from half-court to tie the game at 68-68 with no time remaining in regulation. Once Goins’ shot sank through the net, H.O. Clemmons Arena went into a state of hysteria. Students ran onto the court as frisbees, cups, and pens were thrown into the air. The frisbees, cups, and pens were given to students to promote the Miss UAPB pageant and the financial aid program at UAPB.

UAPB public address announcer John Jacobs, who is the former principal at Pine Bluff High, used his disciplinarian powers Monday night to help bring the crowd to order. Jacobs told the crowd, “Don’t throw frisbees. Stay off the court. You’re about to get a technical foul on your team.”

Despite Jacobs’ warning, the Golden Lions were assessed a technical because of the fans’ actions Monday night after Goins’ game-tying three-pointer.

“That was my first time seeing that (in person),” Goins said. “I’ve seen that on TV before. But I don’t think that was enough to give us a technical because everybody had settled down.”

Matthew Miller went to the free throw line to shoot the two technical foul shots and knocked down both of them to give Texas Southern the 70-68 lead at the start of the overtime period.

“I saw that in Jackson State last year when they made a shot at the buzzer, but no technical foul was called on the fans,” UAPB head coach Van Holt said. “They came out on the floor before the game was over because there was three or four seconds left. The difference in the ballgame was the technical foul on our fans. We made a bushel of mistakes ourselves. You can’t blame any one person. We had our opportunities.

“We didn’t play Golden Lion defense. They scored 77 points, even though there was an overtime. That should have never have taken place. We played such a lackluster first half and gave them confidence. I don’t believe they felt that they had much confidence of coming in here and winning. But the first half, the way we played, we gave them a little boost.”

In the overtime period, Miller propelled Texas Southern to their sixth SWAC victory of the season. Miller scored six of the Tigers’ 10 points in overtime.

UAPB trailed 77-76 with 16.2 seconds remaining in overtime. Goins missed the shot and Allen Smith grabbed the offensive rebound. Larry Williams tried to give the Golden Lions the lead, but missed the possible go-ahead shot as Onyekautukwu Abiakam picked up the rebound for Texas Southern. Abiakim was fouled by Byrd, but missed both foul shots. Goins rebounded the missed foul shot and threw up a desperation three-point attempt, but it did not fall as Texas Southern earned the victory in one of the most bizarre nights in recent UAPB basketball history.

Texas Southern led 31-25 at halftime. The Tigers shot 40.7 percent (11-of-27) in the first half and made four three-pointers (4-of-9). UAPB shot 36.7 percent (11-of-30) from the field in the first half.

UAPB trailed 43-38 with 11:52 remaining in the second half. However, Norwood hit back-to-back three-pointers to increase Texas Southern’s lead to 11 at 49-38.

The Golden Lions cut the 11-point deficit down to one at 51-50 with 5:32 remaining in the contest. UAPB used a 10-0 run to get themselves back into the game. Once again, though, it was Norwood with the hot hand from three-point range, ending the Golden Lions’ 10-0 run.

UAPB was 3-of-18 from three-point range Monday night before Goins drained consecutive three-pointers to pull the Golden Lions to within two at 64-62 with 21.1 seconds left.

The Golden Lions were led by Williams with 21 points. Goins scored 20 points and made four three-pointers in the loss Monday night. Byrd had 17 points and eight rebounds. UAPB shot 42.9 percent (27-of-63) Monday night and were 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from three-point range.

Texas Southern was led by Norwood and David Burrell, who each scored 18 points.

UAPB will be back in action Saturday at Grambling. The Golden Lions have now lost five of their last seven games in the month of February.

Fortunately for UAPB, their next game is in March.