The final road stretch of men’s basketball season starts with a must-win game Saturday for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
UAPB will face Prairie View A&M at 4:30 p.m. at the William J. Nicks Building in Prairie View, Texas, then play Texas Southern at 5 p.m. Monday at H&PE Arena in Houston.
UAPB (4-22, 1-12 SWAC) enters Saturday two games behind Prairie View for the final spot in the SWAC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Atlanta. The top 10 teams will qualify.
For the Golden Lions to have a realistic chance at catching Prairie View (4-22, 3-10), winning Saturday’s rematch is a near necessity. Since the Panthers won 75-64 in Pine Bluff earlier this season, the Golden Lions need to win by 12 points or more to secure the head-to-head tiebreaker.
UAPB coach Solomon Bozeman said he wants his players to come into the game confident in their abilities.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We don’t want to put any pressure on ourselves, but at the end of the day, we gotta find a way to get the job done,” Bozeman said. “We’re going to have to be confident and be poised. I think in a situation like this, you don’t want guys to be super antsy, but you want guys to understand how important this game is. Understand it, to me, it’s life or death.”
In the first meeting in Pine Bluff, Prairie View point guard Tanahj Pettway scored a season-high 33 points to lead the Panthers to victory despite UAPB leading 33-29 at halftime. Prairie View scored 46 points in the second half to take the lead and pull away.
The Panthers’ win in Pine Bluff was their last. They have lost nine straight games since then, which is the longest active losing streak in the SWAC.
Bozeman said Prairie View looks different on film in its recent games compared to the game in Pine Bluff.
“You can tell, man, that they need a win, and they’re trying to figure some things out, maybe with some different lineups,” Bozeman said. “I know they started two bigs last game, so, they’re searching, searching to find a group of guys out there that can find a way to get them a (win). That’s one of the things, but it’s been a lot of things.”
After hosting UAPB, Prairie View will host Mississippi Valley State (3-23, 1-12) on Monday. Although UAPB will also need to fend off Valley in the race for a tournament spot, it is still in the Golden Lions’ best interest if Valley beats Prairie View since UAPB will face Valley next week.
Meanwhile, Texas Southern (11-15, 8-5) will be hosting UAPB looking for revenge. The Tigers enter their Saturday game with Valley having lost four of their past five games. That streak started when UAPB beat TSU 69-68 in Pine Bluff, ending a seven-game winning streak.
The Golden Lions played their best defensive game of the season that day and will need a similar performance to complete a season sweep of TSU.
Bozeman said UAPB is solely focused on Prairie View entering the weekend given the importance of that game and won’t worry about TSU until after Saturday.
“I thought our zone kind of threw (TSU) off the last game, so I’m pretty sure they’ll be prepared for that,” Bozeman said. “We just gotta make sure we have a different game plan for that, but honestly, I haven’t even thought about Texas Southern. My only focus is Prairie View.”