Five players beat their scoring averages Monday night as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff clinched a spot in the SWAC women’s basketball tournament.
UAPB dominated Texas Southern 81-62 at H.O. Clemmons Arena, breaking a two-game losing streak.
UAPB (15-13, 10-5 SWAC) guards Coriah Beck, Tia Morgan, Kaila Walker and Kourtney Rittenberry joined forward Maya Peat in scoring more than their averages.
Beck scored a game-high 21 points. Peat scored 18 points and tied her season-high in rebounds with 14. Walker scored 15 points, Morgan scored a season-high 13, and Rittenberry finished with 8.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
UAPB coach Dawn Thornton said it was especially good to see Morgan step up.
“I know it’s in her,” Thornton said. “We always talk about, Tia’s won a national championship on the junior college level, so she’s played basketball on a high level. Just kind of getting her confidence back where it needs to be, getting her back in rhythm is something I think I talked about on Saturday. I think that she may have found it, and I’m excited for her future.”
Their performances helped UAPB score the most points it had since Jan. 20, an 85-62 win against Florida A&M. The Lady Lions had scored fewer than 60 points in three of their previous four games. UAPB shot 49.2 percent from the field and outscored TSU 40-20 in the paint.
Thornton said the Lady Lions needed those performances in this game, their second with a new lineup.
“I’m super proud of the young ladies and how hard they played on Saturday, carrying that same momentum over on Monday,” Thornton said. “I knew that it was going to look different, but I knew that after we had an opportunity to play together and actually play a full 40 [minutes] together, we could go back and look at the things that we need to look at so we can accomplish things together to win.”
UAPB scored with defense. Texas Southern (5-21, 4-11) turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 21 UAPB points. The Lady Lions finished with 10 steals and outscored TSU 16-3 on the fastbreak.
UAPB played better defensively than when the Lady Lions and Lady Tigers met in Houston on Jan. 13, an 85-80 TSU victory. Beck said UAPB played with more intensity this time.
“I think today, we just felt it more,” Beck said. “I think last time we played them, we just really wasn’t feeling it. The defense wasn’t doing like it’s supposed to do. Offense wasn’t doing like it’s supposed to do. Today, we were just feeling it offensively, defensively, and it all came together.”
TSU shot 30.6 percent from the field. Junior guard Daeja Holmes led the Lady Tigers with 18 points. Jaida Belton, who is TSU’s leading scorer in conference play, fouled out in the third quarter with 1 point and five rebounds.
This win was Thornton’s 100th as the Lady Lions’ coach. She said reaching the milestone feels good.
“I’m happy that we had an opportunity to do it with this team that worked hard for it,” Thornton said. “It wasn’t an easy win, and they stepped up and played really hard for me. So, I’m thankful for this group.”
UAPB guard Tia Morgan shoots the ball over Texas Southern guard Daeja Holmes. (Special to the Commercial/William Harvey)