Defense has carried the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff recently, and the Lady Lions basketball team will need more of it this weekend.
The team will travel to Mississippi Valley State for tipoff at 4 p.m. Saturday and then to Texas for Prairie View A&M at 5 p.m. Monday. UAPB was originally scheduled to face the Lady Panthers on Jan. 15, but the game was postponed due to winter weather. Monday was originally an open date for both teams.
UAPB (10-10, 5-2 SWAC) ranks second in the conference in scoring offense, but its defense led the way in last weekend’s wins against Southern and Grambling State.
In the Lady Lions’ first five SWAC games, they held one opponent below 62 points. Last weekend, they held Southern to 59 and Grambling to 49. GSU hadn’t scored fewer than 63 in a conference game.
UAPB coach Dawn Thornton said the Lady Lions knew Southern and GSU would be challenging.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“One thing that we wanted to do was be resilient in what we do defensively,” Thornton said. “We did a really good job of sticking to the game plan. … Defensively, we want to be able to disrupt what teams do and slow them down [from] getting in the flow of what they do, and I thought that, overall, we did a really good job of doing that.”
UAPB will again need good defense this weekend against two of the top guards in the conference.
Mississippi Valley State (2-19, 1-7) added junior college transfer Sh’Diamond McKnight this offseason. The junior guard is the SWAC’s fifth-leading scorer, ranking eighth in conference games. She averages 13.9 points per SWAC game and scored 21 in MVSU’s win at Texas Southern.
Prairie View A&M (8-9, 4-3) should present a tougher test. Senior guard Ryann Payne is averaging 18 points in SWAC games, tied for second-best in the league. She scored a season-high 27 points in her last game, a win against Alabama A&M.
As UAPB prepares to defend against these two guards, Thornton said several Lady Lions have impressed her defensively, beginning with center Maori “Mo” Davenport and guard Jelissa Reese.
“Mo has done a really good job of getting tips and deflections and really just kind of shooting those gaps, getting those steals,” Thornton said. “Jelissa does a good job of really pressuring the ball. … She does a lot of dirty work for us. So, I think Jelissa and Mo Davenport by all means — but again, Zaay [Green] has picked up her defense. Coriah [Beck], Dede [Demetria] Shephard. Dede comes in and takes charges just relentlessly for us.”
A pair of talented guards won’t be UAPB’s only challenge this week.
Normally, the SWAC schedule pairs teams together as travel partners to make road trips easier. UAPB was meant to play Prairie View two days after playing at nearby Texas Southern. Instead, the Lady Lions will have to travel there from Itta Bena, Miss. That is a 515-mile trip according to Google Maps, estimated at 8 hours, 31 minutes without stops.
Zaay Green said the things UAPB has accomplished this season don’t surprise her anymore, so she’s not too concerned about the long trip.
“I think we’ll be prepared, regardless [of] if we had to take a 10-hour, 12-hour, two-day [trip], it don’t matter,” Green said. “We still gonna be ready to hoop.”