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Showing posts with label Prairie View A and M University Lady Panthers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prairie View A and M University Lady Panthers. Show all posts
Prairie View, TX - Former Prairie View A&M women's basketball standout Latara Darrett has inked a professional contract overseas with the Italian team CUS Cagliari Pallacanestro.
Darrett was Prairie View A&M's leading scorer in the 2009-10 campaign with 15.7 points while pulling down 6.6 rebounds per outing. She was a five-time Southwestern Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Week and a two-time SWAC Player of the Week.
A native of Chino, Calif., the 5-10 guard scored 23 or more points on four occasions with a high of 29 versus Mississippi Valley State on Jan. 25, 2010.
"Latara is an incredible athlete and it was only (a matter of) time when this opportunity would come,” said head coach Toyelle Wilson. “Her passion was always to play professionally. She will do very well in one of the top premier leagues in Italy."
WACO, TX — Brittney Griner and top-seeded Baylor took Prairie View to a record-breaking NCAA tournament low. Griner and Brooklyn Pope each had 17 points as the Lady Bears opened the NCAA tournament at home with the expected lopsided victory, 66-30 Sunday night when Prairie View's miserable shooting translated into the lowest-scoring half ever in the tournament.
Things couldn't have gone any worse for SWAC champion Prairie View (21-12), which missed its first 12 shots before Waco native Robin Jones finally made a layup more than 9 minutes into the game. Baylor (32-2), which plays West Virginia (24-9) on Tuesday night, already had a 16-0 lead by then.
The Lady Bears, who went to the Final Four last season when the 6-foot-8-inch Griner was a freshman, led 34-8 at halftime.
WACO - The Prairie View A&M Panthers knew they faced a tall task - literally and figuratively - in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Not only were the SWAC champions the No. 16 seed taking on a No. 1 seed (Baylor), led by 6-8 Nimitz product Brittney Griner, but they’d have to do so on the Bears’ home floor. What the Panthers didn’t expect was to struggle hitting shots - and that ultimately squashed any hopes of an upset.
The Bears eliminated the Panthers with a dominating 66-30 win before 8,368 on Sunday at the Ferrell Center. Baylor (32-2) will meet West Virginia in the second round of the Dallas Region at 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday at the Ferrell Center.
WACO, Texas - Prairie View has scored the fewest points ever in a half of an NCAA women's tournament game. The SWAC champion Lady Panthers trailed top-seeded Baylor 34-8 at halftime in the first-round game Sunday night. Prairie View was 3-of-27 shooting in the first half and missed its first 12 shots before Waco native Robin Jones scored on a layup for the Lady Panthers to make it 18-2.
GARLAND — With its season hanging in the balance, Prairie View A&M turned to freshman guard Siarra Soliz. The Southwestern Athletic Conference’s freshman of the year didn’t disappoint.
Soliz made a clutch basket and drew a key charge in the closing seconds of Friday’s SWAC semifinal against Grambling State at the Special Events Center, helping the second-seeded Panthers hang on for a 47-41 victory that sent them to the league championship game for the first time since 2009.
Prairie View (20-11) will face top seed Southern, a 78-53 winner over fifth-seeded Mississippi Valley State, at 5 p.m. today.
GARLAND, Texas - Prairie View A&M advanced to the championship round of the SWAC Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons as the Lady Panthers knocked off Grambling State 47-41 in the semifinal round on Friday at the Special Events Center in Garland, Texas.
After senior guard Dominique Smith hit the game's opening basket, the Lady Panthers found themselves down quickly as GSU opened with a 7-0 surge for a 7-2 margin nearly five minutes in. The Lady Panthers regained the lead three minutes later as senior Whitney Williams, sophomore Sharde Henry and freshman Siarra Soliz hit baskets en route to a 9-7 advantage.
With the lead back in their possession, the Lady Panthers turned up the intensity on both ends of the court as they held Grambling State to only seven points over a span of 11 minutes. Offensively, Prairie View A&M continued to roll as Dominique Smith and Robin Jones hit a pair of baskets which extended their lead to double digits at 24-14 with 4:14 remaining.
Texas Southern survived an ugly contest to claim another victory over rival Prairie View A&M.
The Tigers’ prize? Sole possession of first place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
TSU rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit and benefited from a slew of Prairie View miscues in the closing minutes to capture a 63-58 victory before an energetic crowd of 5,578 Saturday night at the H&PE arena.
The Tigers (11-10, 9-1 SWAC) shot better from the field (40.7 percent) than it did from the free throw line (39.4 percent), but the Panthers were equally as bad. Prairie View (6-17, 3-7) shot only 36.5 percent from the field and made only eight of 24 free throws (33.3 percent) en route to suffering its fifth loss in the last six games.
HOUSTON—Travele Jones snagged his third double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 20 points and pulling down 12 rebounds, to lead Texas Southern past Prairie View 63-58 on Saturday night.
After shooting just 25.9 percent from the field in the first half, the Tigers (11-10, 9-1 Southwestern) came back in the second to hit 55.6 percent. Jones made two free throws with 6:47 remaining to put Texas Southern ahead for good. The Tigers led by as many as seven points down the stretch.
HOUSTON - The Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers claimed their fourth straight victory defeating rival Texas Southern 43-38 on Saturday evening at HP&E Arena. The Lady Panthers stormed out to a 15-8 lead to kickoff the first half before the Lady Tigers crawled back via a 9-3 run cutting the deficit to 18-17 at the 6:37 mark.
Texas Southern continued to chip away at the lead and earned their first lead of the contest with Jasmine Cannon’s slashing drive to the basket that gave the Lady Tigers a 19-18 advantage in the closing five minutes of the period. However, Prairie View wouldn’t trail long as they turned up the heat defensively holding Texas Southern scoreless the remainder of the half as sophomore guard Latia Williams nailed a string of jumpers which ignited a 6-0 spurt en route to a 24-19 edge at the half.
For only the second time in school history, Prairie View A&M University has earned the Barbara Jacket/Sadie Magee Award as the top overall women’s sports program in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Prairie View A&M, who totaled 80.5 points, finished tied with Jackson State for the award. This past year, the women’s athletic programs at Prairie View boasted several solid performances highlighted by second place finishes in women’s basketball, bowling, soccer and outdoor track and field. The last time Prairie View A&M captured the award occurred during the 1984-85 athletic campaign.
“We’re always excited to see our student-athletes be successful in the classroom and on the playing field,” said Prairie View A&M University Athletic Director Fred Washington. “This award represents the hard work and dedication of our female sports and it was earned by our student-athletes, coaches and support staff as they represent the best of our Panther Spirit.”
“This award is well-deserved for our female student-athletes,” added Assistant Athletic Director for Female Sports Alicia Pete. “Our student-athletes carry their leadership and athleticism on and off the field. We would like to thank all faculty, staff and administrators for helping our female student- athletes achieve their accomplishment on their well-deserved award.”
Updated: 4/17/10, 12:05 AM - HOUSTON, TX - College basketball sources told FOX 26 Sports that Prairie View A&M University women's basketball coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke has removed her name from consideration to become the next women's head coach at the University of Houston.
Sources told FOX 26 that Cooper-Dyke decided it was in her best interest to remain with the Lady Panthers program where she has done a sensational job since 2005. Prior to her arrival, the women's team at Prairie View A&M had never had a winning season.
(Translation: Cooper-Dyke learned that this opportunity wasn't a good fit for her career path) ------
HOUSTON, TX - College basketball sources told FOX 26 Sports on Tuesday that the search for a new women's basketball coach at the University of Houston is picking up steam. Sources told FOX 26 that UH officials will meet this week in Houston with three candidates -- all of them are current head coaches. They are Prairie View A&M's Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Todd Buchanan from Houston Baptist University and Jodi Kest from University of Akron.
Sources told FOX 26 that UH officials are not at the stage where they are labeling these candidates as finalists for the job. Cooper-Dyke, recently elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, has been the head coach at Prairie View A&M since 2005. Prior to her arrival, the Lady Panthers never had a winning season. In the last five years, Cooper-Dyke has led Prairie View to three SWAC regular season titles, earning two trips to the NCAA Tournament and two trips to the Women's NIT. Cooper-Dyke is a former star with the Houston Comets. She led them to four consecutive WNBA titles.
HOUSTON, TX - FOX 26 Sports has learned that University of Houston officials contacted Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Prairie View A&M University women's basketball coach, as part of the process to find a new coach for the Cougars. College basketball sources told FOX 26 that UH officials conducted a preliminary interview with Cooper-Dyke on the phone. The sources said that the university has also spoken with other candidates in a similiar fashion and that UH is in the early stages of the process.
The Cougars' job opened when Joe Curl resigned because of health issues. Cooper-Dyke was announced on Monday as one of the newest members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is the highest individual honor that a player or coach can receive in the sport of basketball. As a player, Cooper-Dyke did it all leading the University of Southern California to a pair of national championships, winning Olympic gold and leading the Houston Comets to four consecutive WNBA championships. And as a coach, Cooper-Dyke is doing a sensational job at Prairie View A&M.
Oh, Canada. Saskatchewan native Krysten Boogaard produced a career-high 37 points in a rare start as Kansas plunked Prairie View A&M, 82-70, in its WNIT basketball opener Wednesday night in Allen Fieldhouse. “I just knew I needed to fill some big shoes,” Boogaard said. Back in January, the 6-foot-5 junior lost her starting job to Carolyn Davis, but Davis suffered a recurrence of an earlier concussion and had to sit this one out. With Boogaard dominating the paint against the undersized Panthers, the Jayhawks didn’t miss Davis at all.
“It was a huge evening for her,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “She did a great job of getting in front of the rim, and the guards got a lot of passes to her, too.” “I don’t think we were prepared for the intensity that she brought tonight,” Prairie View coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke said of Boogaard. “She maintained that level of intensity on both ends of the court all game long, and that we weren’t prepared for.”
PVAMU Coach Cynthia Cooper Dyke has the Panthers on pace to win its fourth consecutive SWAC regular-season title.
Prairie View A&M coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke must wonder whether she's running a women's basketball program or an infirmary. The Panthers are one of the most injury-riddled teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, having lost four players for the season. One of those players is senior guard and reigning SWAC Player of the Year Gaati Werema, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament during practice Jan. 29.
Werema joined guards Latia Williams and Dieynaba Toure on the list of players whose seasons were ended by torn ACLs. Guard Trinity Robinson was expected to return from a broken wrist this week, but she'll miss the rest of the season after opting for surgery to repair a broken bone. Werema was averaging 13.5 points and a team-leading 8.8 rebounds. To make matters worse, guard Candice Thomas (15.7 points per game) is playing with a sprained knee.
Prior to Cooper-Dyke's arrival on campus, the Lady Panthers had never had a winning season.
Prairie View A&M has reached an agreement on a four-year contract with women’s basketball coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke. “Prairie View is where we want her,” athletic director Fred Washington said Wednesday. Cooper’s original four-year contract expired at the end of last season.
Cooper, a former star with the now-defunct Houston Comets, has led the Lady Panthers to the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three seasons and one trip to the Women's NIT. During that span, Prairie View has won three consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season titles and two postseason conference tournament titles.
“We hadn’t seen very much success in women’s basketball,” Washington said. “We had never approached 20 wins, which we had the last two years, and never seen championship-caliber performances or the level of interest in women’s basketball from our fans or potential student-athletes that we have now.”
Washington said Prairie View A&M has reworked the contract of football coach Henry Frazier III and signed men’s basketball Byron Rimm II to a new four-year contract. It's great keeping a coach who can coach anywhere."
PVAMU women’s basketball players GaatiWerema, Candice Thomas and Dominique Smith were selected by USA Athletes International to represent the United States in the 2009 Vienna Basketball Tournament in Vienna, Austria. The Lady Panthers trio are competing abroad this summer from May 28th – June 6. This is a first for PVAMU and the SWAC and shows the superb influence of Coach Cooper-Dyke on HBCU basketball on the global stage.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Simply put, Courtney Paris is a force of nature. Paris scored 11 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked four shots to help the Oklahoma Sooners blow past Prairie View A&M 76-47 in the opening round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday night. “Courtney Paris proved tonight that she’s the anchor of her team,” Prairie View coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke said. But Paris did not have to carry the load alone.
The top-seeded Sooners (29-4) have a treasure trove of talent and put it all on display in an ESPN-televised game. Starters Danielle Robinson and Ashley Paris combined for 29 points, and Oklahoma’s bench outscored the Lady Panthers’ 20-3. The Lady Panthers (23-11) planned to play an up-tempo style to throw the Sooners off-balance. It was Oklahoma, however, that largely dictated the pace of play.
PVAMU Panthers athletic director Fred Washington
The Sooners went on a 20-8 run midway through the first 20 minutes, but Prairie View managed to hang around. Dominique Smith, who matched Gaati Werema as the Panthers’ leading scorer, scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half, and Prairie View trailed just 38-28 heading into intermission. Prairie View struggled in the second half, shooting just 18.2 percent (6-for-33) from the floor
PVAMU Coach Cynthia Cooper Dyke says the major difference this year will be confidence because the seven freshmen from two years ago are now seasoned juniors.
Prairie View guard Shondria Combs could hardly contain herself as the Lady Panthers waited for their NCAA Tournament first-round opponent to be revealed Monday night. It seemed like an eternity had passed. But moments into the NCAA Tournament Selection Show’s second segment, Prairie View’s name and its daunting task were revealed. The 16th-seeded Lady Panthers, making their second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years, drew Oklahoma City Regional No.1 seed Oklahoma in Sunday’s opening round in Iowa City, Iowa.
The Lady Panthers and the crowd in Buffalo Wild Wings erupted despite the obstacle ahead. “I was excited about whoever we were going to play,” said Combs, a junior. “Just being here is exciting because everybody doesn’t get to make it here so getting there is exciting.” But that’s about as far as the gracious talk went Monday night. The Panthers, led by fourth-year coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, said just being happy to be going to the Big Show was for the first time when they lost to North Carolina in the first round.
This time the Panthers (23-10) are thinking about advancing even as they face one of the most dominant players in college basketball in powerful OU senior post Courtney Paris, who is a 6-foot-4 menace in the paint.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Gaati Werema had 29 points and 16 rebounds to lead Prairie View A&M to a 74-49 victory over Southern in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship game Saturday. The Lady Panthers (23-10) will carry a 19-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament, earning an automatic berth with their second SWAC title game victory in three years.
Werema, the league player of the year and tournament MVP, scored 11 points in a 16-0 run that turned a close game into a rout. Southern (16-13) had cut a 14-point deficit down to two by halftime but managed only one field goal in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. The Jaguars scored just 14 points after the break, making 5-of-30 shots. Southern had been the last team to beat Prairie View, winning 65-59 on Jan. 5 for the Lady Panthers only conference loss. The Lady Panthers have won two of the past three tournament titles, losing in last year’s championship game.
Candice Thomas had 18 points for Prairie View on 8-of-12 shooting, while Dominique Smith added 15 points and eight assists.
PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS — Prairie View avenged its only Southwestern Athletic Conference loss of the season by holding off the Southern women’s basketball team 59-51 Saturday night at the William J. Nicks Building. Dominique Smith scored 17 points and Candice Thomas added 15 points, seven rebounds and five steals to lead PV (20-10, 17-1), which has won its third straight SWAC regular-season title, all under former WNBA superstar Cynthia Cooper-Dyke.
The Lady Panthers have won 16 straight games, all since losing 63-58 on Jan. 5 in Baton Rouge. Gaati Werema added 10 points and 10 rebounds and Shondria Combs 11 points. Deidra Jackson scored 17 points and had seven rebounds and three steals to lead SU (14-12, 11-7). Ashley Augerson added 14 points and eight rebounds, while Jamie Floyd had 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Lady PanthersCoach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is poised for a breakout post-season in the SWAC and NCAA Tournaments.
“I was really pleased with the kids’ effort,” SU coach Sandy Pugh said. “I thought they played really hard.” PV scored the game’s first 11 points, holding Southern scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the game. SU recovered and eventually led 35-33 after Jackson made a pair of free throws with 14:35 remaining in the game. “I think they were in a tentative mode, and then Deidra took over,” Pugh said. “They made some stops, and their confidence got up.”
“We couldn’t get the stop at the other end,” Pugh said. “We were tired. … We gave it all we had. “Prairie View is solid, playing at the top of its game. We have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Prairie View A&M women's basketball coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke's philosophy has been to take life a game at a time.With a 6-1 record in Southwestern Athletic Conference play, life has been pretty good for the Lady Panthers, who host Alabama State Saturday afternoon (5:30 p.m.). The two-time defending conference champs have ripped off five straight wins since a 63-58 loss to Southern Jan. 5 and are reaping the benefits of a daunting non-conference schedule.
"Our biggest concern is that we don't want to peak too soon," said Cooper-Dyke. "We know everyone has been the aggressor against us, and that's something we need to change. We've worked on that in practice, so now we have to be able to turn the tables against our opponents." The Lady Panthers had their mettle tested in an 83-77 overtime win at Arkansas-Pine Bluff Monday, where Prairie View had to overcome a 17-point deficit with 12 minutes left. In Cooper-Dyke's eyes, the rally could serve as a turning point for the team.
1. What’s the state of SWAC men’s basketball? Simply put, it’s not good. Sixteen years ago, when Southern upset Georgia Tech in the 1993 NCAA Tournament, the Jaguars were a No. 13 seed. These days, the mere thought of a 13th-seeded SWAC team is laughable.
Of the 31 conferences in Division I men’s basketball, the SWAC currently ranks dead last; teams often spend their nonconference season playing “guarantee” games, and they all have grim records to show for it. Alabama State has the best record at 3-7. Southern is 0-12 — but two more teams, including Texas Southern, have it worse at 0-13. Of course, with that in mind, maybe the Jaguars have a shot at a decent conference record.
Women: Or is it half-full?
1. Has the SWAC improved? According to the latest RPI ratings, it still ranks 31st among Division I conferences. Still, SU ninth-year coach Sandy Pugh said she thinks the SWAC has improved. “When I came into this league, I basically walked in with four players — and of those four players, two of them were the top two players in the league,” Pugh said. “The recruitment here in the conference has grown.” So has the coaching pedigree. It started with Freda Freeman-Jackson at Alabama State and continued with Pugh. More recently, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke has turned Prairie View from also-ran to league favorite in a short time.
