Two critical mistakes in the final 5 minutes Saturday night cost the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff men’s basketball team in its first home loss this season.
UAPB dropped a 71-67 heartbreaker to Florida A&M at H.O. Clemmons Arena, its second straight loss overall. UAPB Coach Solomon Bozeman said the Golden Lions weren’t disciplined.
“We go up three; we get a (technical foul),” Bozeman said. “We leave (Jaquan) Sanders – who’s their best shooter; he’s been shooting lights out in conference – leave him on a couple of possessions, he hits four threes tonight. That’s not following the scouting report, just not disciplined. … It’s on me. I gotta find a way to make sure this team is disciplined.”
UAPB (6-12, 3-2 SWAC) led 54-51 with 4:49 remaining after senior guard Quion Williams took the ball the length of the floor and threw down a one-handed dunk over Florida A&M senior guard Micah Octave, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
In the immediate aftermath, UAPB senior forward Jaquan Scott received a technical foul. It was his fifth personal foul, ending his night after playing 26 minutes.
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“I guess he yelled at a guy’s face or whatever,” Bozeman said. “That hurt us. Simple, it hurt us. Gotta be disciplined, and we weren’t disciplined. So, it cost us the game today. That wasn’t it, but we certainly had the momentum at that point. Man, let’s get back. Let’s get some stops.”
Florida A&M senior guard Jaquan Sanders made both free throws. The Rattlers (6-9, 3-1) kept the ball due to the technical foul, and Sanders hit another two free throws to put the Rattlers in front. Senior guard Jordan Chatman made it to the free throw line for two more 14 seconds later, extending the lead to 57-54.
The Golden Lions fought back, and junior guard Ramel Lloyd Jr. hit a three-pointer with 2:38 remaining to restore UAPB’s lead, 60-58.
UAPB later led 62-61 with 1:45 remaining. Chatman made the second game-changing play soon after, hitting a three-pointer from the corner in front of his bench while drawing a foul from Lloyd.
Chatman finished the four-point play with 1:28 to play. Bozeman said Chatman wouldn’t have even gotten the chance to take that shot had UAPB’s defense remained disciplined on that play.
“The ball screen coverage, we’re supposed to switch it,” Bozeman said. “We didn’t switch it. It’s that simple. So then, when we didn’t switch the ball screen coverage, we had to help, because they were able to turn the corner.
“They do a good job of swinging that ball. They rotate, swung it, swung it, swung it, and they got it to the wide-open man. If we switch, everybody stayed at home on their man, and they don’t even get that shot off. We make them have to take a difficult shot.”
Junior center Miles Ndalama hit two free throws with 58.3 remaining to make it 67-62. UAPB cut the deficit to one possession twice but never tied the game or led again.
Senior guard Alex Mirhosseini led the Golden Lions with 16 points, while junior Trevon Payton added 13. Williams finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for his seventh double-double of the season. Lloyd added 11 on a day eight players scored for UAPB.
Scott, UAPB’s second-leading scorer this season behind Williams, was held to five points for the second straight game, both UAPB losses.
Bozeman said the Golden Lions need Scott, who was only held below 10 points twice in nonconference play, to step up again.
“If he’s going to be out there, he’s got to make plays,” Bozeman said. “It’s that simple. They’ve done a really good job guarding him, but I think it’s all mental with him. I think he’s guarding his self. He’s stopping his self, and he’s too talented of a player to stop himself. We gotta find a way to keep him confident and get him back believing in his abilities again.”
Sanders led FAMU with 18 points after making 4 of 8 from three-point range. Chatman scored 17 points, and Ndalama added 15.