Southern University women rally, stand alone in first

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Everything felt wrong. Late in the first half Monday night in the F.G. Clark Activity Center, in a showdown for first place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the Southern women’s basketball team had more turnovers than points.

Mississippi Valley State pressed, trapped and scored with ease, and the Jaguars looked lost. But their coach didn’t blow a fuse. Before they wiped out a 15-point deficit and pulled away late for a crucial 63-59 victory, Sandy Pugh simply told her players to calm down.

“She never lost her patience. She told us we just needed to breathe,” junior center Laneisha Stephens said. “Just breathe, and take care of the ball. She told our guards that we just needed to handle it and get through it. And we did.”

Indeed. As a result, Southern — on a quest for its third consecutive regular-season SWAC title — controls its own fate in the conference standings as the backstretch approaches.

Photos: Southern men and women battle MVSU

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