ISLA VISTA, CA – The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff men’s basketball team lost their first game of the Cerebro Sports Cali Jam to California Santa Barbara with a final score of 86-58 on Wednesday night at The Thunderdome.
Kylen Miton led the Golden Lions with 17 points and five rebounds.
Travonta Doolittle, Trey Sampson, and K’Shun Stokes each finished with nine points apiece.
Doolittle and Sampson shot the ball at 50 percent from the field, and Stokes shot 60 percent from the field. Sampson added four rebounds, one assist, one block, and one steal, and Stokes gave two additional assists for the Golden Lions.
In his first start of the season, Doolittle brought the energy for the Golden Lions and showed no sign of fear against a big Santa Barbara team. Reading their options against the UCSB defense, Doolittle found an opening along the baseline and took the lane for a right-handed teardrop.
Being aggressive with the ball when driving against a big team, Doolittle understood that he may not be able to go amongst the trees and found his solution by drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line.
With the energy flowing early on, Milton and K’Shun Stokes began to get involved, knocking down two huge three-point buckets followed by a Milton fastbreak layup to keep things tied up early.
Doolittle selfness became contagious for the Golden Lions as Stokes began to distribute the ball well, finding AJ Stredic on a curl to the basketball for a layup and Sampson for a perimeter bucket.
The sets that UAPB head coach Solomon Bozeman called resulted in a bucket for almost every possession in the half, and Bozeman’s passion showed more and more every scoring possession.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s transition offense went the Golden Lion’s way as well, with Shawn Williams knocking down some big-time fastbreak three-pointers to keep the pace moving forward for UAPB.
Things became scary when Sampson showed how he could play above the rim for the Golden Lions. Sampson would catch a body on a putback one-handed slam and would turn around the next play and throw it down, ending an electrifying first half with a score of 38-36.
Trying to keep duplicate the first half energy in the second half, a three-pointer from Doolittle, a layup from Stokes, and a powerful two-handed jam from Milton kept the Golden Lions within single digits, but three turnovers changed the dynamic of the matchup and caused Santa Barbara to pull away and not look back resulting in the Golden Lions to fall with a final score of 86-58.
The Golden Lions will return to action on Black Friday for their second Cerebro Sports Cali Jam game against the University of the Pacific at 9 p.m. CST. The game will be aired on the WCC Network.
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