Midway through January, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff women’s basketball team has already tripled its SWAC win total from last season.
The Lady Lions will try to keep their momentum going on the road this week. UAPB will face Grambling State at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center in Grambling, La., before heading to Baton Rouge to play Southern at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the F.G. Clark Activity Center. Both games will be streamed on SWAC TV.
UAPB (6-10, 3-3 SWAC) is coming off a 2-0 home weekend after sweeping the league’s Florida teams and has won three of its past four games.
The Lady Lions scored 77 and 63 points in their wins against Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M. The only time prior to last week UAPB scored more than 57 points in regulation against a Division I opponent was in the 69-64 win against Memphis on Nov. 3, the first game of the season.
UAPB shot a season-high 57.4% against BCU, and the 40% night against FAMU was its fourth-best shooting performance of the year.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Players such as junior guard Jasmine Davis, junior forward Khaniah Gardner and freshman forward Tyra Taylor have done their part to help leading scorers Indiya Bowen and Jailah Pelly.
UAPB Coach Erica Leak said she adjusted the offense so teams can’t just focus on guarding Bowen and Pelly.
“We have to do something to get everybody involved, and everybody feels a part of the offense,” Leak said. “So, they are sharing the basketball, and we’re getting our bigs some touches. You see Khaniah is getting some touches. (Briontanay Marshall) is really rebounding the basketball well, so we’re trying to get everybody involved.”
Davis, who connected on a season-high four three-pointers against FAMU, has scored 55 points in six conference games after managing 50 in 10 nonconference games. Her two highest-scoring nights of the season have come in two of UAPB’s past three games.
Gardner had her first double-double of the year against FAMU with 12 points and 10 rebounds two days after scoring a season-high 15 points against BCU. She had previously not scored more than 11 in a game this year.
Taylor saw limited minutes this past week but had two of her best games of the season during UAPB’s last road trip to Texas, including a 17-point, nine-rebound performance at Prairie View A&M.
UAPB played without senior guard Kristyna Boyd against FAMU. She missed most of nonconference but had played in each previous conference game. Leak said on Tuesday UAPB was still waiting for a medical update.
The Lady Lions instead got freshman guard Jakyra Jackson back from concussion protocol. She had not played since Dec. 4 against Arkansas Baptist. Jackson played just six minutes in her return but scored 2 points with 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 rebound in that time.
Leak said both of this week’s opponents will use a full-court press, so the Lady Lions must handle their pressure well to repeat last week’s offensive success.
“They want to create chaos, and we just gotta remain calm and poised and have our spacing together where we’re not in panic mode,” Leak said. “We know what we’re doing. We can break the press, and we can attack once we get the ball in the middle, and we can get easy baskets. Get enough easy baskets, and they’ll get out of it.”
Grambling (5-11, 2-3) has alternated wins and losses since the start of conference play. Grambling ranks second in the SWAC in points per game and fourth in points allowed, though both ranks drop when considering only conference games.
Senior forward Shaniah Nunn is Grambling’s leading scorer with 11.8 points per game but also leads the SWAC in rebounds with 7.8 per contest.
Southern (8-8, 4-1) made waves during nonconference play by knocking off two Big 12 teams — Arizona and Houston — over the course of four days in early December. The Lady Jaguars lost to FAMU on the road during conference play but nonetheless sit in a three-way tie for first place in the SWAC alongside Alabama A&M and Alcorn State.
The Lady Jags have held their SWAC opponents to 50.6 points per game, making them the top-ranked scoring defense so far. They are holding teams to 14.9% from three-point range, while their offense shoots the three at 31.6%, the league’s best. UAPB has the SWAC’s second-best three-point percentage in conference play and has made a SWAC-leading 34.
Leak said if the Lady Lions want to win a SWAC championship, they will have to go through Southern to do it.
“I think this is the championship game in the SWAC,” Leak said. “I’ve been preaching that to my girls. Like, ‘Listen, this is the game. This is the game that we’re going to have to play on neutral court. This is it, in my opinion. So, we’ll see.'”
UAPB and Southern met in the 2023 SWAC championship game in Birmingham, Ala., in a game Southern won 62-53. The teams have split their two regular season meetings since, with the road team winning each time.