PINE BLUFF, Ark.—Alabama State University had a positive start to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) season with two home wins, but the task gets considerably harder as ASU will hit the road for their next three conference contests. The first of those three games will be at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Sunday, Jan. 6 at 6 p.m.
All of the exciting play-by-play action can be heard over WVAS Radio. The link can be found on ASU's Game Day Central at
www.bamastatesports.com.
The Hornets came off Friday night's win over Grambling with a short night of rest and left for the eight hour trip to Pine Bluff Saturday morning.
The game represents ASU's fourth game in nine days, while UAPB had not played since their 79-64 win over Mississippi Valley last Wednesday, Jan. 2.
The two teams met three times last season with all three games going down to the final horn. ASU beat the Golden Lions in Montgomery 62-56 and on the return trip to Pine Bluff, UAPB withstood three last second shots from ASU to hold on for a 62-61 win. The final time the two teams met was in the opening round of the SWAC Tournament where UAPB pulled out a 60-56 overtime win.
Like ASU, UAPB played a tough preconference schedule that includes teams like San Diego State, Washington State, Arizona State, Oregon and Michigan State. That type of schedule has their overall record at 2-11 but started conference play out with a 79-64 win over Mississippi Valley.
After all the tough games between the two teams in the past the coaching staff knows what to expect from tomorrow's game.
“They are the typical Pine Bluff and we have had an opportunity to watch some of their preconference games and they play hard,” Head Coach
Lewis Jackson said. “Anytime you come in here you know you are in for a tremendous battle. They are aggressive defensively and we have to do a good job of keeping their bigs off the glass.”
“They are going to crash the offensive boards and they are going to trap the corners in their defensive scheme. So we have to be ready to play a tough ball team.”
UAPB has three players averaging double figures led by Terrell Kennedy's 13.7 points per game. Lazabian Jackson averages 11.2 and Davon Haynes averages 10.9 and is also the team's leading rebounder at 6.6 per game.
Daniel Broughton, a 2012 All-SWAC performer for the Golden Lions, suffered an injury early in the season and is working his way back into playing shape. He has played in the team's last five games and is averaging four points per game.
Joshua Freelove is coming off a 17-point performance against Grambling and leads the Hornets averaging 12.4 points per game. He is the only Hornet averaging in double digits.
Phillip Crawford (8.3),
Shawntez Patterson (8.1) and Denzell McDaniel (8.0) are giving plenty of offensive support while
Stephawn Brown and
Luther Page lead the team in rebounding, both averaging 4.9 per game.
ASU played 26 minutes of what may have been their best basketball of the season against Grambling. ASU built a 55-25 lead with 14 minutes left in the game, only to see Grambling fight back and close the game to the final 13 point difference at 69-56.
That final 14 minutes are what the coaches have spent plenty of time pointing out to the Hornets.
“We have to stay focused for the entire game,” Jackson said. “Often times when you have a lead of that margin, and we were up 30 with 14 to play, you have a tendency to think the game is over. We started getting away from the things we were doing like playing defense and rebounding and pushing the ball up the court and making the extra pass.”
“We just have to stay focused at the task at hand, especially on the road. We have to value every possession and make them count for you.”
