Two players recorded double-doubles Wednesday night as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff men’s basketball team won its home opener.
UAPB routed Champion Christian College 99-57 at H.O. Clemmons Arena for its first win of the season.
The Golden Lions gathered 16 offensive rebounds, led by junior forward Kyle Brown’s 5 and senior forward Klemen Vuga’s 4. Those rebounds led to 24 second-chance points.
Vuga scored a game-high 24 points with 11 rebounds, while junior forward Robert Lewis scored 13 points with 11 boards.
UAPB Coach Solomon Bozeman said with Vuga, Lewis and Brown, the Golden Lions (1-1) have a better post presence than in previous years.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We got a bigger group, so we gonna have to play inside a lot more,” Bozeman said. “We was always a lot of 3s in previous years, but this year, we got more of an inside group to where we can play inside and out. So, it’s finally good to have a post presence that you can feed inside, and both of those guys can really pass, too.”
Junior guard Christian Moore scored 20 points, and junior guard Quentin Bolton Jr. finished with 14.
Both teams got off to a slow-shooting start, with neither team scoring until Tiger center Malik Laurent gave Champion a 2-0 lead just over 3.5 minutes into the game. The Golden Lions quickly responded, though, as Moore tied it on the next possession, then hit a 3-pointer to give the Golden Lions the lead.
Adrian Brown went on to give the Tigers an 11-9 lead with a 3-point shot, but that would be their final advantage. An EJ Anderson free throw tied it at 12 before Lewis gave the Golden Lions the lead for good.
Vuga said UAPB stuck to the game plan when the shots weren’t falling early.
“The defense got us going,” Vuga said. “We gotta keep that up. We gotta start every game like that. It doesn’t matter how we start offensively. As long as the defense is there, I feel like we gonna pick it up and just get going.”
Lewis’ layup started a 21-5 UAPB run to pull away. Moore scored on a driving layup in the final seconds of the half to send UAPB into the locker room with a 52-29 edge.
The game was never in doubt in the second half. UAPB had a 25-2 run early to continue putting the game beyond reach. The Golden Lions went on to score the final 5 points and didn’t allow Champion to score from the field in the final 5:21 of the game.
Bozeman said he was much happier with the defensive effort Wednesday after Monday’s 109-54 loss at No. 20 Cincinnati.
“That’s a top-20 team, but I thought our defensive effort was awful,” Bozeman said. “So tonight, all we wanted to do was focus on the defensive end of the floor. I knew our offense would come. Still don’t think we shot the ball well. We only hit seven 3s. I think we’re a better shooting team than that, but I was pleased with our defensive effort.”