Southern women's basketball wins outright SWAC championship

'BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Coach Sandy Pugh walked to midcourt at the F.G. Clark Activity Center with a finger pointed to the sky.  Southern's women's basketball players mobbed one another nearby in celebration.

Southern, which began this season as an underestimated team with unproven talent and few lofty expectations, clinched the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 96-58 win against Prairie View on Saturday.

"I'm just happy to see it happen for them," Pugh said.

Pugh's finger aimed high signified the end of a remarkable season — something perhaps she expected in October when not many others did.  The league’s coaches and sports information directors, who are as well-versed in the happenings of SWAC basketball as anyone, chose Southern — which will hold their celebratory net-cutting ceremony Sunday — to finish fourth in their preseason poll.

“In 19 years, I think when it’s all set and done, this team has potential to go down as one of my best teams ever," Pugh said on Nov. 10.

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