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| COURTESY SWAC.ORG Men's Game at 4:30 PM ET, ESPN2 HD |
The Texas shoot-out is historic. For the first time in the 32-year history of the league's joint men and women's basketball tournament, the championship match-ups is spotlighted by the men and women's team from the same universities.
You could not ask for a better story line.
The TSU Lady Tigers and PVAMU Lady Panthers will square off at 12 p.m. CT, before the Tigers and Panthers tip off at 3:30 p.m. Both games will be held inside Toyota Center on Saturday, March 15.
The women's game will air live on ESPN 3 with the replay televised on ESPNU at 12:00 a.m. CT. The men's championship round will broadcast on ESPN 2.
No. 2 Texas Southern (20-11)
The Lady Tigers make their first appearance in the championship game after moving through the rounds with wins over Grambling State (82-74) and Jackson State (79-77 OT). TSU is led by the 2014 SWAC Women's Basketball Player of the Year, Jazzmin Parker.
Parker spent much of the season among the nation's elite scorers and is averaging 19.1 points per game. For the tournament, she is shooting 50 percent overall (12-of-24) and is coming off a 21-point effort to help lift TSU to its first championship berth, slipping past JSU in overtime.
Joining Parker includes: Briana Sidney, Sarah Williams (SWAC Newcomer of the Year) and Morgan Simmons (All Conference). Sidney has totaled 27 points in two games during the tournament and leads the team in steals (57). Williams enters the game as TSU's leader in assists (4.8 apg) and Simmons spearheads the rebounding effort with 8.4 per contest.
No. 4 Prairie View A&M (13-17)
The winners of three consecutive tournament crowns, the Lady Panthers have a chance to join Jackson State (1982-85) and Grambling State (1996-99) as winners of four straight SWAC tournament titles.
PVAMU crawled through the non-conference slate picking up its first win of the season in conference play. However, the Lady Panthers showed tournament experience out weighs a regular season record defeating Alabama State (71-61) and upsetting No. 1 seed and regular season champions Southern. The Lady Panthers defeated the Lady Jaguar with a convincing 72-43 win.
The Lady Panthers have won five of the last seven titles including four within five years. They make their eigth appearance and are powered by veteran guard tandem Jeannatte Jackson and LeReahn Washington.
As result of her tournament perfromance, Jackson is now the league's top scorer with 19.3 points per game. She scored a combined 42 points and is posting 21 per game in the tourney. She leads her team in assists (3.8 apg) and steals (2.6) spg. Washington chips in 9.6 points per game to join at least three players scoring in double digits through the tourney.
No. 2 Texas Southern (18-14)
The winners of eight straight games, TSU makes its 13th tournament championship appearance, its last in 2012. The Tigers have made more appearances in the tournament championship game than any other team but have only won four.
The Tigers missed last year's tournament due to APR and with a win, head coach Mike Davis can carry his third team to the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers are spearheaded by SWAC MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, Aaric Murray. Murray guides TSU with a league best 21 points per game with 7.6. In two games, he has totaled 34 points in the tourney with eight blocks, propelling TSU over Grambling State (79-54) and Alabama State (73-61).
Madarious Gibbs pushes the offense and is the team's leader in assists with 5.2 per game. At least three players have scored in double figures through the tournament for TSU.
No. 8 Prairie View A&M (11-22)
Closing out the season with seven straight losses, the Panthers picked up three wins to make back-to-back championship game appearances without an all-conference selection.
PVAMU proved postseason sparks a clean slate beating Mississippi Valley State (79-63), upsetting No. 1 seed and regualr season champions Southern (64-46), and stifling Alabama A&M (55-49).
Montrael Scott, Tre Hagood, and Demondre Chapman shared the load for the Panthers' offense. Each are avearging double figures for the tournament as Scott leads the team in scoring with 14.8 points per game. Hagood has led the team in the tourney with 14.7 points per game and the entire field with 7.3 rebounds per game a guard.
Chapman adds 11.3 points per game for the tournament and is the team's leader in rebounds with 5.6 per game. Scott holds 10.3 per game through the bracket as the Panthers make their fourth appearance in the final round winning notching one crown in 1998.
COURTESY SWAC.ORG
COURTESY SWAC.ORG
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