March 13, 2008

Final Statistics

Birmingham, Ala. - The No. 3 Bulldogs (14-15) went until the 6:38 mark of the second half without a field goal, as No. 6 Arkansas Pine-Bluff (13-17) rolled to a 72-59 victory in the opening round of the SWAC Tourney Thursday Mar. 13 at Fair Park Arena. Mickell Gladness recorded his seventh double-double of the season to pace A&M with 21 points and 11 boards - just one point off his career-high. Trant Simpson also placed in double figures with 20 points, which included a 9-for-10 mark from the charity stripe.

For Pine-Bluff, Larry Williams led the Lions with 18 points. Marcelle Goins tallied 13 points. Cory Norman and William Byrd had 11 and 10 points, respectively.

A&M held the lead for the majority of the first half until a triple by Pine-Bluff's Gavin Montgomery gave the Golden Lions their first advantage of the game at 19-18. UAPB led by as many as 10 points, but four straight points cut it to six, 31-25, with 4:02 left in the first half. The Lions responded by scoring four straight of their own to push to spread back to 10, however. An 8-5 run by A&M in the final 3:05 of the half sliced into the advantage as the Bulldogs trailed 36-31 heading into intermission.

Gladness led AAMU in the first 20 minutes with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Simpson had 10 and went a flawless 6-for-6 from the stripe. For the Lions, Williams paced his squad with 9 points.

A&M struggled to connect on its shots in the second half, going the first 14-plus minutes without a field goal. The Bulldogs converted 13 points at the foul until their first basket of the half at the 6:38 mark. The Lions held a double digit advantage throughout the second stint, leading by as many as 17 points with 6:42 left in regulation. The closest AAMU was able to get was 11, three times, with the last coming within the final two minutes of play.

A&M finished the game shooting 5-for-29 from the field in the second half, good for only 17.2 percent. For the game they were 27 percent while Pine-Bluff posted a 47 percent (23-for-49) shooting clip. However, the Bulldogs only committed nine turnovers for the game and were able to convert 24 points off 24 UAPB miscues.

This marks Pine-Bluff's third win this year over the Bulldogs. UAPB swept the regular season series with A&M, defeating the Bulldogs 65-59 in the first meeting and 70-65 in the second. Pine-Bluff will face Mississippi Valley State in the semifinal game Fri. March 14 at 2:30 p.m.