The 2024–25 Arkansas–Pine Bluff Golden Lions women's basketball team represented the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Golden Lions, who were led by first-year head coach Erica Leak, played their home games at the H.O. Clemmons Arena in Pine Bluff, Arkansas as members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
Previous season The Golden Lions finished the 2023–24 season 17–16, 11–7 in SWAC play, to finish in fourth place. They defeated Alabama A&M, before falling to top-seeded and eventual tournament champions Jackson State in the semifinals of the SWAC tournament.
On April 6, 2024, head coach Dawn Thornton announced that she would be stepping down from her position of head coach after six seasons, in order to take the head coaching job at fellow SWAC school Alabama A&M. On April 25, the school announced that they would be hiring West Memphis High School head coach Erica Leak as Thornton's successor.
Preseason On September 19, 2024, the SWAC released their preseason coaches poll. Arkansas–Pine Bluff was picked to finish eleventh in the SWAC.
Preseason rankings SWAC preseason pollPredicted finishTeamVotes (1st place) 1 Grambling State 276 (10) 2 Southern 232 (2) 3 Alabama A&M 226 (4) 4 Jackson State 211 (4) 5 Florida A&M 178 (3) 6 Prairie View A&M 165 (1) 7 Alcorn State 157 8 Bethune–Cookman 142 9 Texas Southern 117 10 Alabama State 114 11 Arkansas–Pine Bluff 86 12 Mississippi Valley State 46
Source:
Preseason All-SWAC Teams No Golden Lions were named to the first or second Preseason All-SWAC teams.
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=""| SWAC regular season
Sources:
References