The New Year brings a fresh start for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff women’s basketball team.
The Lady Lions will open SWAC play at 6 p.m. Thursday against Alabama State in Montgomery, before playing Alabama A&M at 2 p.m. Saturday in Huntsville.
This weekend will debut the SWAC’s new women’s basketball scheduling formula featuring Thursday and Saturday games. The women and men will continue to play doubleheaders on Saturdays as before, but the men will continue playing on Mondays while the women shift to Thursdays.
UAPB (2-8), in its first year under new coach Erica Leak, failed to win a non-conference game against a Division I opponent for the first time since the 2019-20 season, which was former Coach Dawn Thornton’s first year.
The Lady Lions had few close calls, including a 63-60 loss at Tulsa and a 70-62 loss in their last game of December at University of Texas at El Paso.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Alabama State (2-10) fared no better. Since staring 2-0 against non-Division I teams, the Lady Hornets have lost 10 straight games, with the closest one being a 63-43 loss to West Georgia.
Those losses no longer matter, though, as the start of SWAC play gives every team a 0-0 record.
UAPB and Alabama State enter this game as the lowest scoring teams in the SWAC, both averaging fewer than 50 points per game. UAPB has a defensive edge, though, as the Lady Lions held their non-conference opponents to 65.8 points per game, second best in the league. ASU’s opponents scored 82.8, second most.
No team reached 100 points against UAPB, while two teams did so against Alabama State. One of those, Oklahoma State, scored 125 against the Lady Hornets and 96 against UAPB.
Of note, ASU played eight power conference opponents compared to UAPB’s three.
Graduate student guard Cordasia Harris leads the Lady Hornets with 9.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
After Thursday’s matchup, the Lady Lions will face their former head coach on Saturday.
Alabama A&M (7-5) is playing well in Thornton’s first season leading the Lady Bulldogs. Her squad notched six Division I wins in non-conference play, including an 80-77 win against a North Alabama team which beat UAPB 62-48 in Pine Bluff.
AAMU features three former Lady Lions who followed Thornton to Huntsville. Senior guard Kaila Walker is the Lady Bulldogs’ scoring leader with 13.6 points per game. She is third in the SWAC.
Another former UAPB player, Kourtney Rittenberry, is AAMU’s third leading scorer with 9.7 points per game and second leading rebounder with 4.8 per game. Maori Davenport is the third leading rebounder with 4.0 per game.