The first home games of the Erica Leak era are set for this week.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff women’s basketball team will host Texas A&M-Texarkana for its home opener at 6 p.m. Monday night at H.O. Clemmons Arena. The Lady Lions will then host Arkansas Baptist at the same time on Wednesday.
UAPB (0-3) is coming off a three-game road stretch that involved two lopsided losses to Power Four opponents and a heartbreaking 63-60 defeat at Tulsa. The Lady Lions will look to get back on track this week against a pair of NAIA opponents.
In addition to a new coach this season, the Lady Lions have a mostly new roster. Empress Roberts, Stephanie Okowi and Uriah Jennings are the only returning players from last season.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Junior guard D’Arrah Allen, a University of Texas at El Paso transfer, led the team with 10.7 points per game on the road trip. She scored a game-high 19 points against Tulsa and 9 points against Ole Miss. She also leads the team in assists with six.
Sophomore guard Jailah Pelly, an Indiana State transfer, led the Lady Lions with 15 points against Oklahoma State but scored just 4 combined in the two games since. Freshman guard Janiyah Tucker didn’t play in the first two games but scored 8 against Ole Miss. Tucker played for Leak at West Memphis High School.
Junior forwards Kristyna Boyd and Briontanay Marshall, both transfers from Walters State College, have been the leading rebounders thus far with 4.7 and 4.3 per game, respectively. Okowi is third with 4.3.
Leak is in her first year as UAPB head coach. The 2005 Washington Mystics draft pick was hired earlier this year after Dawn Thornton departed for Alabama A&M.
Her first home game as a college coach will come against Texas A&M-Texarkana (0-4). Senior forward Kayla Williams leads the team with 12.8 points per game.
The Eagles are averaging 58.3 points per game while allowing 63.5. This will be their second road game of the season, the first being a 73-36 loss at Ouachita Baptist.
On Wednesday, UAPB will host in-state HBCU foe Arkansas Baptist (0-1). In the Buffaloes’ prior game, a 73-55 loss to Rust College, forward Ariel Jefferson scored a game-high 21 points, while guard Chasity Woodard scored 16.
According to the box score on the Continental Athletic Conference’s website, which is the conference Baptist plays in, every Baptist starter except Woodard played all 40 minutes against Rust, while Woodard played 39.
Both NAIA teams will consider these games as exhibitions, but UAPB will count them as regular-season contests.
After these games, UAPB will head to Texas for a pair of road games before returning home for its final non-conference home game on Dec. 1.