The Texas Southern University Lady Tigers (5-0 SWAC, 9-6 overall) proved why they are the No. 1 team in the Southwestern Athletic Conference on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the Fredrick C. Hobdy Arena Center.
TSU outscored Grambling (4-2 SWAC, 7-10 overall) in points in the paint (by 10) and points off of turnovers (by four). Grambling was ahead of TSU in second chance points (by eight), fast break points (by three), and bench points (by six). Unfortunately, it was not enough for the win. Grambling lost 62-50.
Their 6-4 center, Kianna Vines, dominated the paint with 21 points and 13 rebounds, but ended the night in a little bit of foul trouble with four personal fouls.
GSU had a hard time getting the ball in the basket throughout the entire game while shooting only 19-for-62 from the field. Key free throws would have helped as well. GSU was 66.7 percent from the line, while TSU didn’t miss any.
GLENN LEWIS/The Yearbook
Deonte Hearns (3) goes up for a jump shot against two Texas Southern University defenders.
TSU had its largest lead in the second quarter leading by 16 after a 10-0 run. At the end of the third, GSU cut TSU’s lead to a single digit, but it was short lived. TSU was back up by 11 with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter. TSU’s Lady Tigers kept their lead until the end to win by 12.
Jazmin Boyd was GSU’s leading scorer with 11 points. Both Brenae Andrews and John’ea Thompson followed with nine, and then Monisha Neal with seven.
Freshman Shakyla Hill, who’s only 5’7, collected fourteen rebounds for the night. She also led the game with three steals. She currently ranks No. 2 in the league in that category.
The men’s basketball team also attempted to come out victorious as shots from guards Nigel Ribeiro and Arnold Richmond put the Tigers with an early lead advantage over their opponent in the first half but it would be Texas Southern who would take the win with a final score of 69-54.
Texas Southern was able to come back from being down by more than 10 points and lead by one at halftime. Ribeiro put up six points with two rebounds and Richmond had six points as well.
Derrick Griffin, Orlando Coleman and David Blanks of Texas Southern all had six points while Coleman put up seven rebounds as well.
The second half of the game was a struggle for the home team as they tried at their best attempts to beat out TSU, but the visiting team would be too much for head coach Shawn Walker and his players. At one point there was a 20 point lead Texas Southern gained over Grambling.
“Texas Southern is a really good team. We had some good moments. We had a difficult time adjusting to them. We suffered to be disciplined,” says Walker.
Mitchell finished with 22 points, five rebounds and four assists and Chris Thomas of Texas Southern put up 19 points with five rebounds and two assists.
Both teams will travel to Jackson, Mississippi on Saturday (Jan. 23) to play Jackson State University. The women will play at 3:00 p.m. followed by the men at 5:30 p.m.
The next home game for the Tigers will be on Saturday, Feb. 6 in a rematch against the Jaguars and Lady Jaguars of Southern University.
Both teams were defeated by Southern on Saturday, Jan. 9 but the Tigers and Lady Tigers will have another chance to be the victors against the rival school. The women will play at 3 p.m. followed by the men at 7:30 p.m.