Photos by Kevin Nagle
PINE BLUFF — The Pine Bluff Zebras had a point to make Thursday night and they hammered it home convincingly.
On Jan. 14, the Bryant Hornets stunned the Z’s, 42-41. Pine Bluff trailed most of the game and used pressure defense to rally in the fourth quarter. With three shots to win it in the final seconds, they couldn’t get it done. The victory started a six-game winning streak for Bryant, a streak that included two more one-point wins.
Kevin Hunt (11) gets between a pair of Pine Bluff defenders including Will Gragg (4). (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
When the Hornets made their visit to McFadden Arena on Thursday, the Zebras stampeded to a 71-51 victory, snapping a tie between the teams for second place in the South Conference.
It was a make-up game for the two teams from a contest that had been snowed out on Friday, Feb. 7. Both return to action tonight in regularly scheduled league tilts. Bryant hosts Sheridan while Pine Bluff visits Little Rock J.A. Fair.
Pine Bluff shot 57 percent from the field in the game (31 of 53) and out-rebounded the smaller Hornets 37-26.
The Zebras came within a point of having the “mercy rule” put into effect, building a lead of 68-39 early in the fourth quarter.
“I think that’s how Pine Bluff’s capable of playing,” stated Hornets coach Mike Abrahamson. “I don’t mean this the wrong way but it’s probably what more people expect from them.
“If we’re going to win that game, we’ve got to do things extra special,” he stated. “The way that we played them last time, the way that game went was everything worked for us until they started pressing with a minute left in the third quarter. With their size and their length and their strength, they’re just a really tough team when they play like that.
“They shot the ball well in their own gym,” the coach acknowledged. “They hit a few contested 3’s early in the game and it kind of set the tone. They were on everything tonight and we weren’t but, even if we were a little bit better, I think they still win the game. They were on fire tonight. They were tough.”
Marcus Thomas hit a trio of 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 17 points. Roosevelt Murray and J’Marlos Johnson each added 16 for the Zebras.
Freshman Desmond Duckworth came off the bench to lead the Hornets with 14. Senior C.J. Rainey added 12.
But the Hornets struggled shooting the ball from the field (17 of 48, 35 percent).
“We needed to use more shot fakes in the first half,” Abrahamson related. “You know it’s really hard for us to finish because of our size disadvantage. So we need to use more shot fakes. I thought we did some of that better in the second half. It’s something that we’ve really been working on, just catching it and looking at the rim, catching it and faking a shot. A team like (Pine Bluff), I thought we could’ve gotten in the air. I think we could’ve gotten to the foul line a little more. I would’ve liked to have seen that.”
But, at the free-throw line, the Hornets were just 12 of 23 (52 percent), a big factor since Pine Bluff only shot nine free throws in the game.
Thomas and Bryant’s Romen Martin traded 3’s to start the game but then the Zebras went on an 11-1 run to establish a solid lead. Duckworth’s first 3 cut it to 14-7 but it was 20-8 before the Hornets hit another field goal, an eight-foot jumper by Rainey. A free throw by Kevin Hunt trimmed it to 20-11 going into the second quarter.
It was 22-14 before the Zebras put together another run. The 8-1 push produced the largest lead of the first half, 30-15.
After a timeout, the Hornets responded with a 10-0 spree. Duckworth canned a 12-footer and followed up with his second triple. Rainey got free inside to score then, off a Pine Bluff turnover — one of 22 in the game for the Zebras — Rainey drained a pull-up pop in the lane to make it 30-24.
Greyson Giles hauled down an offensive rebound with 1:18 left in the half. His free throw capped the run, trimming the lead to 5.
But Johnson scored off a teammate’s drive and dish. David Beasley blocked a shot by Martin and Johnson wound up with a dunk despite being fouled. He completed the three-point play to make it a 9-point lead but, with :16 left, Giles drove and kicked out to Martin for a troika that had the Hornets back within 6.
Whatever lift that had given Bryant, however, it was deflated when Thomas beat the buzzer with a 3. That not only made it 37-28 at the half, it started a game-breaking 17-0 run.
Nothing went right for the Hornets as that surge developed to start the third quarter. The lead was 51-28 before Cedarrian Crosby broke the spell with a 3 with 3:39 left in the third.
Bryant, scrambling defensively, trimmed the margin to 14. Caleb Strain absorbed a charge that led to a basket by Wesley Peters on an inbounds play. Rainey hit two free throws and followed up with a steal, which produced a layup by Crosby.
But the Zebras re-established their dominance at that point with a 17-2 burst to build their largest lead of 29.
In the fourth quarter, the Hornets forced 10 turnovers including three steals by Wesley Peters but they were only able to convert about half of those into points. Duckworth scored 6 of his points in the final seven minutes. Martin had 4 and Kris Croom 2.
The final difference was as close as Bryant could get down the stretch.
The sliver of a silver lining in the one-sided loss may be the fact that the Bryant starters got more rest in advance of tonight’s game.
“You never know,” Abrahamson commented. “It’s the time of year where everyone’s a little banged up, everybody’s tired and three games in a week doesn’t help. But we’ve got to make it up. At least we’re at home (Friday). We’ve got to move on fast because, if we have a hangover from this one, we’ll drop another one tomorrow.”
ZEBRAS 71, HORNETS 51
Score by quarters
BRYANT 11 17 11 12 — 51
Pine Bluff 20 17 23 11 — 71
HORNETS (10-11, 6-4) 51
Rainey 4-9 4-6 12, Hunt 2-5 2-4 7, Martin 2-7 2-2 7, Giles 0-4 2-8 2, Crosby 2-6 0-0 5, Duckworth 5-9 2-2 14, Buchanan 0-0 0-0 0, Peters 1-4 0-0 2, Strain 0-0 0-0 0, Croom 1-4 0-1 2. Totals: 17-48 12-23 51.
ZEBRAS (10-8, 5-3) 71
Thomas 6-11 2-2 17, Murray 8-11 0-0 16, Beasley 1-3 0-0 2, Gragg 2-2 0-1 4, Johnson 8-11 0-1 16, Skelton 3-6 1-1 8, Napper 0-2 0-0 0, Smith Jr. 0-1 0-0 0, Ryland 0-1 1-2 1, Tate 3-4 1-2 7, Willis 0-0 0-0 0, Pulliam 0-1 0-0 2. Totals 31-53 5-9 71.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 5-15 (Duckworth 2-4, Martin 1-4, Crosby 1-2, Hunt 1-2, Giles 0-3), Pine Bluff 4-10 (Thomas 3-4, Skelton 1-3, Murray 0-1, Napper 0-1, Smith Jr. 0-1). Rebounds: Bryant 26 (Rainey 6, Crosby 5), Pine Bluff 37 (Johnson, Tate 8). Turnovers: Bryant 19, Pine Bluff 22. Team fouls: Bryant 10, Pine Bluff 16.
