Lady Lions start SWAC with victory
Even with a tougher nonconference schedule than Alabama A&M, shaking off last season’s Southwestern Athletic Conference No. 2 seed was no piece of cake for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff women’s basketball team.
Coriah Beck, Zaay Green and Jelissa Reese combined for 46 points to lead UAPB — the SWAC tournament runner-up last season — to a 75-67 win over Alabama A&M on Saturday at H.O. Clemmons Arena to start conference action. The teams met for the first time since then-No. 7 seed UAPB stunned Alabama A&M in last season’s tournament first round.
“We’ve just been playing together since last year and we’ve gotten better since,” Beck said. “We were a whole new team, new people. We play well together and we understand each other’s games.”
Beck scored 16 points and had 8 assists. Green and Reese each finished with 15 points, with Green also making 8 assists and pulling down 6 rebounds.
“We all work together and we all share the ball, and it’s really anybody’s night,” Reese said.
Yet the Lady Lions (6-8, 1-0 SWAC) aren’t entirely satisfied. The game revealed that they have much room for improvement, according to Reese.
“We can’t play down to our level of competition,” she said.
UAPB made plenty of noise during the recent nonconference slate with wins over Southern Methodist and the University of Arkansas. The Lady Lions also faced off against two Pac-12 teams and two other Southeastern Conference teams, but their only other win against a Division I program was in their outing at McNeese State on Dec. 31.
Alabama A&M (5-8, 0-1) earned four of its wins over Division I teams, but none against Power Five-conference opponents. That didn’t stop the Bulldogs from tying the Lady Lions 32-all at halftime, closing out the first half on a 7-0 run.
“Coach just cussed us out real good in the locker room,” Reese said. “She told us we’ve got to get on it and play our defense
our way.”
No matter how colorful Dawn Thornton’s words were to her Lady Lions, they had to overcome 21 turnovers of their own and collect 12 steals, with Green making 3 swipes. The Bulldogs committed 15 turnovers and made 14 steals. UAPB scored 21 points off turnovers to Alabama A&M’s 14.
“I just told them our best defense is our best offense, and we aren’t playing Lady Lion defensive basketball,” Thornton said. “That’s not what I saw the first two quarters. If you let a team stick around, they’ll come around and beat you. Alabama A&M was right on our heels.”
Alabama A&M outrebounded UAPB 39-33.
Kaylah Turner scored 16 points and collected 8 assists to lead the Bulldogs. Alisha Wilson had 14 points and 6 rebounds and Amiah Simmons and Kailyn Nash each scored 11.
Simmons came into the game as the third-leading scorer in the conference with 14.9 points per game.
“We wanted to make sure any shot she took was going to be tough,” Thornton said. Simmons went 4 for 11 from the floor.
“Reese is one of our best on-ball defenders. We started off with her. Players with that flow who can shoot the ball well, we’ll put our best defender on her and we can slow her down some,” Thornton added.
UAPB made 25 of 54 (46.3%) from the floor but converted only 4 of 19 from 3-point range. The Lady Lions converted 21 of 30 free throws.
Alabama A&M was 26 for 62 (41.9%) from the floor, 3 of 15 from distant. The Bulldogs made 12 of 20 free throws.
The Lady Lions led for 31 minutes of the game, compared to 3½ minutes for the Bulldogs. Reese keyed an 8-0 run to put UAPB ahead 40-34, but the Bulldogs scrapped back to tie it at 46-all with 3:01 left in the period. Beck then converted two free throws and made a 3 to give UAPB a 55-47 lead going into the fourth.
Alabama A&M could only pull within 73-67 with 24 seconds left in the game.
UAPB will host Alabama State at 5:30 p.m. Monday.