Lions a threat to Tigers’ reign
UAPB looks like class of the SWAC after pulling out win
Texas Southern has been the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s top dog of late, winning the league’s regular-season title the last three seasons and the conference tournament three of the past four years.
It won’t be a cakewalk for the Tigers in 2018. They have stiff competition. Arkansas-Pine Bluff is a legitimate contender. The Golden Lions came into Monday night’s matchup with TSU as the lone unbeaten team in conference, winning their first six league games.
The Golden Lions remain undefeated, beating the Tigers in dramatic fashion 74-72 at the H&PE Arena.
Martaveous McKnight connected on a 3-pointer to tie the game at 72 with 1.5 seconds remaining and was fouled.
TSU coach Mike Davis was assessed a technical for arguing the foul call. McKnight missed the foul shot but made both technical foul shots to conclude the scoring.
“You never foul people on jump shots,” Davis said. “That’s the worst thing you can do is foul a jump shooter.”
The loss was heartbreaking for the Tigers, who erased an eight-point early second-half deficit and led by four points with 2:19 remaining before letting the Golden Lions (7-14, 7-0) escape with the victory.
Lamont Walker’s desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer misfired, handing TSU (4-16, 4-3) its third loss in four games.
TSU’s 27-game home winning streak, second-longest in the nation to Cincinnati’s 36game run, came to an end.
Derrick Bruce scored 25 points, and Donte Clark, who was coming off a 41-point performance in Saturday’s win over Mississippi Valley State, had 21 for the Tigers. They were without leading scorer Demontrae Jefferson (23.2 points per game), who was suspended for a violation of team rules for the second consecutive game.
Bruce was 8 of 18 from the field — 3 of 10 on 3-pointers — but Davis would like to have seen Bruce go to the basket more.
“When they’re in a zone, that doesn’t mean you shoot jump shots,” Davis said. “Just drive the ball.”
Charles Jackson scored 20 of his team-high 25 points in the first half for UAPB, which went 0-14 in non-conference games.
McKnight, who had 14 points on Monday on 3-of-15 shooting, was coming off a monster game Saturday at Prairie View A&M, putting up a season-high 39 points with six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
TSU, which led by as many as five points in the first half, stayed in the game with its rebounding. The Tigers enjoyed a 45-29 advantage on the boards, with Marquis Salmon collecting 10.