Texas Southern Makes A Statement In The SWAC After Rocking Jackson State, 69-54

Texas Southern University (5-10, 4-0 SWAC) sent shockwaves through the conference after defeating Jackson State University (5-10, 3-1 SWAC), 69-54, with 927 spectators at Health & Physical Education Arena in Houston, Texas.  

Thursday’s victory for the Lady Tigers of Texas Southern was the first in ten games. TSU had not defeated a Jackson State team since Jan. 21, 2019, at HP&E Arena.  

That was Tomekia Reed’s first visit to Houston as the JSU Tigers head women’s basketball coach.

“Taking care of home and protecting home is obviously important,” Coach Vernette Skeete said in her postgame interview. “I’m really excited to see our fans come out and support us. Some of those lows when they were going on runs and they were stopping us, and hurting our play with the play calls of the fouls and things like that, the fans really got us going and gotten us over the hump and helped us find our juice back. So we were able to stop some of those runs before they got really going. Super excited about the fans tonight.”

Aylasia Fantroy led with 20 points, six rebounds, two blocks, and a steal in a commanding performance by the TSU Tigers. She has been a great addition to Texas Southern this season.

Deija Holmes was their top rebounder with 8 points. Treasure Thompson contributed 9 points and five rebounds and added three blocks.

“We just want to compete every night. We wanna execute every night. We want to get some of them to their best games, and we still have so much more in their games we’re trying to expand and get to…because we care about more statements they make in the postseason, not really during the season number 4.”

Coach Skeete’s team entered halftime leading, 41-25, with a scoring efficiency of 39.53% from the floor and 3-of-8 from 3-point range.   

The Lady Tigers finished scoring 29-of-69 (42.0%), 3-of-7 in treys, and 61.5% from the free throw line.

Jackson State struggled with Texas Southern’s defense in the first half, scoring 26.5% and going 1-for-8 from beyond the arc.  

JSU completed the game, going 17-of-65 (26.2%) for the field, 11.1% in three-pointers, and 18-of-29 (62.1%) at the charity stripe.

Texas Southern excelled in the paint, scoring 46 points compared to Jackson State’s 28, with a points off turnovers differential of 16 to 6.  

The TSU Tigers also received 24 points from their bench, while JSU’s bench contributed only 13 points.  

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Texas Southern will host Alcorn State at 3 PM CT inside H&PE Arena on Saturday, Jan. 18, before next week’s games against Alabama State (Jan. 23) and Alabama A&M (Jan. 25).

The Bowie State (9-7, 1-3 CIAA) men’s basketball team achieved a stunning upset defeating Howard (8-10,3-0 MEAC) by a score of 76-73 in front of 2,100 spectators at Burr Gymnasium.

The match was highly competitive as Warren Mouganda led the Bulldogs with 26 points, 8 rebounds, and a steal in the exciting crosstown HBCU showdown.

Justin Morrisey and Victory Noboya each contributed 12 points in the conquest over the Bison.

It’s the second Bowie State win this season against an HBCU Division I program. The Bulldogs beat Hampton 73-71 in the exhibition game this past October.

Game Highlights

The game was exciting from start to finish, with both teams exchanging leads throughout the contest. Bowie State’s resilience and determination after trailing by two points to Howard at halftime, 42-40.

The Bulldogs shot 46.88% from the floor in the first half but increased their efficiency to 53.57% in the second half. BSU knocked 50% of its shots, drained 45.8% of three-pointers, and hit 71.4% from the charity stripe.

The visitors scored 32 points in the paint and 21 points from turnovers, dominating Howard, who only recorded 22 paint points and 12 points off turnovers.

READ MORE: HBCU Basketball: Bulldogs Stun Bison In A Nail-Biter Upset