Sports

UAPB TRYING TO STAY LOOSE AFTER HISTORIC WIN

By Troy Schulte/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:47 AM CST

Members of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff men’s basketball team spilled out of the locker room at the Davey L. Whitney Complex late Monday night not quite aware of the historical implications surrounding their 101-77 blowout win over Alcorn State.

It wasn’t until radio play-by-play announcer Tim Stubbs passed along a nugget of information — after he placed a late-night phone call to former UAPB sports information director Carl Whimper — did they realize what had been accomplished.

The reality was that the 101 points the Golden Lions dropped on the Braves is believed to be the first time a UAPB team reached triple-digits since before any current player was alive, and even before their coach, George Ivory, played his college career at Mississippi Valley State.

“Wow,” said Ivory when told that Whimper believes the last time UAPB broke the 100-point barrier was during the 1978-79 season. “We’re happy to get it, though.”

It mattered little to the Golden Lions that such an offensive outburst came against a team that has perhaps struggled moreso than any other team in the Southwestern Athletic Conference this season.

The Braves (3-15, 1-5) entered Monday’s game with only one win against a Division I team, an 88-72 win over Mississippi Valley State on Jan. 17, and had allowed 80 points in nine games.

UAPB (4-12, 3-2 SWAC) point guard Terrance Calvin said the difference between Monday and Saturday’s 70-60 overtime loss at Southern weren’t too drastic. On Monday the Golden Lions slashed through the Braves’ zone defense rather than trying to shoot over it, like they had against the Jaguars.

UAPB took 30 3-point shots against Southern, and made only eight. And though its 4-for-13 performance from 3-point range on Monday isn’t the percentage Ivory would like, his team took 24 more shots from inside the 3-point line than on Saturday.

“Basically, it was just confidence,” Calvin said. “I think (against Southern) and a few games before that we haven’t went out and just had fun. We’ve been kind of timid and out there like zombies.”

Many of the Golden Lions’ 44 made field goals — they attempted 74 — came off drives to the basket, but there were also several mid-range jump shots that displayed a shooting touch they haven’t often displayed. The 59.5 field goal percentage was their highest mark of the season.

Ivory attributed the improvement to a pair of workouts following Saturday’s loss, one at Alcorn State on Sunday and another Monday morning at a high school in Jackson, Miss.

“I pracitced with them a little bit yesterday and tried to show them how you can play and just have fun instead of being uptight,” Ivory said. “This is probably the first time all year we put together a comlete game.”

Lebaron Weathers appeared to benefit most from the extra workouts. The junior forward tied a season-high with 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting. During one period at the end of the first half and start of the second, he made seven straight jump shots.

Calvin called Weathers UAPB’s “zone-buster” because of his ability to be a consistent outside shooter and said several of his points came on a play called “Alabama,” where Weathers ended up alone along the baseline just inside the 3-point line.

“Definitely, I was just thinking in my head to shoot the way I know I can shoot,” Weathers said. “They know I’m hot, they’re just bringing it to me and I’m going to keep putting it in there.”

The win kept the Golden Lions among the top four teams in the conference, just a half game behind Jackson State (5-13, 4-2) and two games behind Alabama State (8-7, 5-0) and Prairie View A&M (8-9, 5-0).

UAPB hosts Texas Southern on Saturday — the UAPB women play at 5:30 p.m. with the men’s game to immediately follow — and Prairie View on Monday. It will be another big weekend for the Golden Lions as they try and stay on the top half of the conference standings and build on momentum that can be gathered by such a decisive victory.

“I asked Tyree (Glass), ‘Is this the best feeling you’ve had since we’ve been here?’” Calvin said. “We both agreed that it was, so hopefully we can make it better from here on out.”

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