BATON ROUGE, La. — Things are on the bright side now for Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Mitchell Anderson racked up a double-double, helping UAPB — which only hit 35.2 percent from the field — beat Southern 64-58 on Saturday at the F.G. Clark Center.
The win is UAPB’s fourth in a row and has helped the Golden Lions (6-19, 5-7 SWAC) break a tie for sixth place in the SWAC standings with its next opponent, Alcorn State (6-17, 4-8). League-leading Mississippi Valley State beat Alcorn State 71-63 on Saturday in Lorman, Miss.
“The guys are getting their rhythm going,” UAPB coach George Ivory said. “Mitch had another great game. I think the guys are really jelling together.”
Anderson led the Lions with 21 points, 11 rebounds and two steals in 30 minutes. He hit 7 of 10 free throws.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“He took over the game,” Ivory said. “He was scoring one-on-one, and he had 21 points and 11 rebounds. He was guarding one of their best players (in Derick Beltran).”
Also for UAPB, Savalace Townsend had 12 points but was plagued with four turnovers and Daniel Broughton totaled 11 points and seven rebounds before fouling out. Lazabian Jackson added nine points and Lavoris Weathers six for the Lions.
Beltran, a guard who hit the winning three-point shot in Southern’s 69-68 victory at UAPB last month, scored 22 points, hitting 4 of 9 from three-point range. He also had six rebounds.
Quinton Doggett added 18 points and 11 rebounds, Jameel Grace 11 points and seven boards and Fredrick Coleman eight boards.
Neither team shot well, as Southern (13-12, 9-3) managed only 35.9 percent field-goal shooting (23 of 64), 19 percent from three-point range (4 of 21) and 61.5 percent in free throws (8 of 13). UAPB, which converted 19 of 54 field-goal attempts, went 25 percent from the arc (3 of 12) and 74.2 percent from the line (23 of 31).
The Lions trailed 30-24 at halftime. They gave up an 11-0 run early in the first half to fall behind 17-12 and eventually trailed by as much as 28-17.
UAPB started the second half with a 14-1 run aided by eight of Broughton’s points and built its largest lead at 52-37 with 8:28 left in the game. But that margin was closed to 52-50 in a couple of minutes after Beltran hit three straight treys.
Southern never tied or took the lead again, however. Jackson went 6 for 6 from the foul line in the final 34 seconds to help the Lions put away the Jaguars.
WOMEN
Southern 62, UAPB 48
The count now stands at 35.
The Lady Lions (0-23, 0-12 SWAC) could not overcome a poor first half shooting the ball and dropped their 35th straight game Saturday, the longest current such streak for an NCAA men’s or women’s team. They were within striking distance at the half, trailing 25-22.
The Lady Lions hit only 5 of 21 first-half shots (23.8 percent) and finished 15 of 49 for 30.6 percent. They were much better from three-point range, however, hitting 4 of 9 compared to the Jaguars’ 2 of 11.
Chi Chi Okwumabua scored 18 points and had six rebounds for the Lady Lions, and Lakendra Marsh added 10 points, two steals and three boards. Southern was led by Kendra Coleman with 11 points and reigning SWAC player of the week Laneisha Stephens with 10.