Clash of the Lady Tigers

Grambling State University women’s basketball team (6-9 overall, 3-1 SWAC) will go in to Saturday’s game against Texas Southern University (5-9 overall, 2-1 SWAC) playing with much confidence.
After dropping a game against Southern University with a score of 100-92, they bounced back with a 77-72 victory over Alcorn State University.  The Lady Tigers are now back on track and are ready to continue their hot start to the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
“We are ecstatic!” assistant coach Brittany Taylor-James said when asked how she felt about the team’s 3-1 conference record. “We have been very pleased and just really keeping a spirit of humility.”
Assistant coach Lou Hamilton added, “we feel as though we have a positive momentum coming into these next two games.”
Their next game is home against TSU. The Lady Tigers of TSU is ranked 5th in the conference and they have one of the conference’s leading scorers, Jazzmin Parker.
Parker averages 21.5 points a game with 40 percent shooting.
“Jazzmin Parker is a great player, however we have a great team,” Hamilton said. “We feel as though our team is going be ready for the challenge. We just need our fans, our staff, and everyone to come out and make a lot of noise so we can come out victorious on Saturday.”
Although the Lady Tigers went 1-1 in their last two matchups, Joanna Miller certainly did not disappoint. She was the team’s leading scorer averaging 31 points.
As a result, she was honored as the SWAC player of the week. This was her second time this season.
In Tigers’ most recent victory over the Lady Braves, she scored another game high of 25 points. She also had eight rebounds and made all eight free throws.
Dennisha Chambers contributed with 15 points and Tyler Anderson with 10. Victoya Ricks, the second leading scorer of the Lady Tigers, averaging 11.5 points, totaled seven points and seven rebounds this game.
Against Southern University the Lady Tigers came up short by only eight points, after trailing by 27 points.
The Lady Tigers started off strong until Southern hit them with a 10-0 run mid-way through the first half.
By halftime, the Lady Tigers were shooting 10 percent from behind the arc compared to the Lady Jaguars’ 46.7 percent. Jaguars made seven 3-pointers.
Grambling ultimately improved in the second half, but it was not enough for the win.
Miller finish with a game high of 37 points, Anderson pitched in with 12 points and seven rebounds while Jasmine Godboldt added 12 points and eight rebounds.
With 14 games left, which are all conference games, the Lady Tigers still have a lot of work to do to accomplish their number one goal of winning the SWAC Championship.
“We have SWAC championship on our mind,” coach Taylor-James said. “That is one of our goals obviously, but it’s not about the championship. It’s about every day, every play, every hour, every minute and taking it little by little.”
Tip-off against Texas Southern is Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Frederick C. Hobdy Assembly Center.