A second-half push by Alcorn State wasn’t enough to halt the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s winning streak.
The UAPB men’s basketball team never trailed in an 84-77 win against the Braves at H.O. Clemmons Arena on Saturday.
Head coach Solomon Bozeman said he is proud of his team for keeping the lead despite the Braves making it close at the end.
“This team, they know how to win late games,” Bozeman said. “Proud of our guys for finishing, finding ways to get wins, especially in close games. We were able to get key stops when we needed them, and then, we were able to make the right play on the other end and make big-time plays on the offensive end, execute what we wanted to do.”
UAPB (10-13, 7-3 SWAC) led by as much as 56-36 early in the second half, but the Braves fought back midway through the half with a 14-2 run, cutting the lead to 71-66 with 6:38 remaining.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Alcorn State (4-18, 3-7) kept pushing and got hot from 3-point range. Junior guard Shane Lancaster made the Braves’ 10th 3-pointer with 21.3 seconds remaining to get the game back to within one possession, 80-77.
The Braves fouled freshman guard Milhan Charles, who made two crucial free throws with 13.6 seconds left. Alcorn got the ball into the front court before UAPB senior guard Alex Mirhosseini stole the ball. He lobbed it to senior guard Quion Williams for a crowd-pleasing dunk in the final seconds to close out UAPB’s fourth straight win.
Mirhosseini is one of the SWAC’s leading 3-point shooters, but he said he also takes pride in his defense.
“Coming from a Division II (school), everybody’s going to try to attack me,” Mirhosseini said. “I’m a smaller guard, so I gotta be a pest on defense.”
UAPB started the game red-hot, making its first nine shots from the field and its first six from 3-point range. Mirhosseini finished a rare 4-point play 16 seconds into the game to give the Golden Lions a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Alcorn hit a pair of shots to cut UAPB’s lead to 42-33 with 3:52 left in the first half but didn’t score from the floor again in the half, only managing a single free throw while UAPB finished the half on a 7-1 run. Senior forward Dennis Asoro finished the half with a layup off an Alcorn turnover to send UAPB into halftime up 49-34, its largest lead to that point.
UAPB shot 65.4 percent from the field and made seven 3-pointers in the first half but shot 47.8 percent in the second half, making two 3-pointers. After dishing nine assists and turning the ball over twice in the first half, UAPB gave it away 13 times in a second half which saw them finish with six assists.
Bozeman said UAPB got too relaxed with the big lead.
“We came out too casual, and that’s when they made their run,” Bozeman said. “That’s on me, man. We’ve gotta get better at that, because we’ve had leads like that before, and we gotta continue to work on that in practice. When we’re up like that, we gotta learn how to try to put teams away, but that’s just growth, man.”
This was UAPB’s third win in SWAC play which came despite letting a big lead get close. The Golden Lions led by as much as 17 in the second half against both Texas Southern and Mississippi Valley State but won both games by 8. UAPB also led by 17 against Bethune-Cookman before the Wildcats rallied to win in overtime.
Williams led UAPB with 25 points and seven rebounds, while Mirhosseini added 20 points and six assists. Williams shot 7 of 8 at the free throw line, and Mirhosseini shot 4 of 5 from 3-point range.
Senior forward Jaquan Scott added 13 points and 11 rebounds, while junior guard Ramel Lloyd Jr. scored 10 points.
Alcorn sophomore guard Davian Williams led the Braves with 18 points. Four other Braves reached double figures, led by junior forward Tycen McDaniels with 12 points, five rebounds and five steals.