Southern University Accept WNIT Invite: Travels to Tulane on Thursday

Baton Rouge, La. - Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season women's basketball champion Southern University accepted an invitation Monday to the WNIT, an automatic berth for conference champions that do not win their respective tournament title. The Lady Jaguars will travel to New Orleans to face Tulane on Thursday in the opening round of the 64-team tournament.

There was some speculation as to whether or not the Lady Jaguars would accept the bid to the tournament when head coach Sandy Pugh announced in her post-game interview following the SWAC Tournament championship game that the school might not be able to afford to send the team to the post-season.

2011 WNIT Bracket

SU raises funds, draws Tulane in WNIT

One by one, they started to show up at Southern University with their checkbooks and wallets open, offering to support the women’s basketball team however they could. Thanks to a flood of 11th-hour donations from alumni and booster groups, the women’s basketball team collected enough money to cover last-minute travel costs for the WNIT.

That allowed the Jaguars to accept the automatic bid they received for winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season championship.

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SU women beat ASU for fourth straight victory

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Defense, rebounding and strong guard play helped the Southern women’s basketball team in a 50-41 victory at Alabama State on Saturday night, extending the Jaguars’ winning streak to four games. Now, it’s on to Alabama A&M and a showdown for control of the Southwestern Athletic Conference race.

Saturday night in the Dunn-Lover Acadome, for the seventh time in seven conference games, Southern shot below 40 percent from the floor — but the Jaguars, as usual, made sure their 50 points were enough.

Southern (9-8, 6-1) forced 20 turnovers and owned a 33-25 advantage in rebounds against Alabama State (4-13, 1-5). The Lady Hornets got 14 points from Tanika Jackson and 10 points from Erica Henderson, but six of their 11 players went scoreless.

ASU falls short, Moorer or less

Former Central-Hayneville standout Tramayne Moorer returned to the Alabama State lineup for just the second time this season Saturday.

He responded with only the third double-double by a Hornet this season, scoring a team-high 11 points and grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds. But it wasn't enough, as the Hornets lost to Southern 64-52 at Dunn-Oliver Acadome.

For Moorer, it's a double dose of frustration. Sidelined for all but one game of his second and third years at ASU with a broken kneecap and a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, he was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA to play this season.

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SU Jaguars fall just short against Valley

One stop. One rebound. Those were the two things Southern really needed Monday night against Mississippi Valley State. The Jaguars got one out of two, and that wasn’t enough in a 65-62 loss. With the final minute of Monday’s game ticking away inside the F.G. Clark Activity Center, the Jaguars needed one defensive stop and one defensive rebound for a chance to tie the game at the other end.

Playing solid half-court defense, they forced an off-balance shot by Valley’s Orlando Smith — and had they grabbed the ball, they could’ve tied the score. But in a scene that seemed to repeat itself time after time in the second half, the Delta Devils came up with a loose ball and gave themselves another chance to score.

Foster nails buzzer-beater for SU women

Tiffany Foster was in foul trouble, turnover-prone and stuck on the bench to begin the second half. Worse yet, she’d missed most of her open jumpers for the better part of a month. Monday night against Mississippi Valley State, she hit a big one when the Jaguars absolutely needed it.

Foster dribbled the length of the court, pulled up near the baseline and drained a jumper from 12 feet away with 0.2 seconds left, giving Southern a thrilling 47-45 win at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.

“That takes a lot of guts, and my hat’s off to her,” SU coach Sandy Pugh said. “It was her first (career) game-winner, and it was a big one.”

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Maxey, JSU Tigers put clamps on Southern Jaguars

Two days after scoring its most points in a conference game in eight years, Jackson State delivered another impressive performance - this time, on the defensive end.

Grant Maxey had his first double-double in nearly two years - re-emerging for the Tigers at the right time - and Jackson State whipped Southern 73-49 Monday night, pushing its Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season win streak to 17 games and showing the home crowd it can also play some defense.

"I think our defense is getting better," JSU coach Tevester Anderson said. "We played awesome defense the first 20 minutes."

Southern women edge Jackson State

JACKSON, Miss. — Hannah Kador and the Southern women’s basketball team had both been in an ugly shooting slump. Monday night at Jackson State, they both warmed up when they absolutely needed to.

The Jaguars set a season high by shooting 50 percent from the floor, and Kador was 3-for-6 in the second-half — including the game-winning shot, a short jumper that gave Southern a 63-61 victory Monday night over Jackson State.

It was a happy ending to an otherwise rough game for the Jaguars (6-8, 3-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference). Tiffany Foster and Ashley Augerson, both seniors, weren’t available for the final horn. Foster fouled out, and Augerson suffered a broken nose during the first half.

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Southern University women dominate in sprints

Friday night, as the first day of the 51st annual Davenport-Milburn Pelican Relays wound down, only a few dozen people filled the stands at A.W. Mumford Stadium. By Saturday morning, the west side of the stadium was almost full, packed with parents, coaches, fans and loads of high school, college and club teams who came for the second day, when the event picked up steam. Were anybody so inclined, he could have watched 11 hours of track and field.

One of the day’s highlights, however, came during college sprints, where the Southern women dominated a field that included Grambling, Mississippi Valley State and Southern-New Orleans. One day after sweeping the women’s 200-meter dash, the Lady Jaguars swept the 100 meters. Jazzmin Sims finished first with a time of 12.05 seconds, followed by Lambreche Odeh (12.29) — running in the 100 for the first time. Teammates Sierra Richard (12.59) and Kayante Parker (12.81) were third and fourth, respectively.

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UConn Crushes Southern U. In NCAA Opener

UConn Crushes Southern U. In NCAA Opener

NORFOLK, VA - Let's be honest, if this was about something other than basketball, like pep bands and cheer squads, the top-seeded UConn women would be heading home today, the Huskies' run in the NCAA Tournament ended by a national powerhouse. But this wasn't a battle of the bands. There was only so much pep Southern University's world-class brass and percussion could pump into the Ted Constant Convocation Center Sunday. It stirred the crowd early and often, beginning an hour before the tip.

However, there wasn't much they could do for their basketball team against the Huskies. Tubas and trombones don't win tournaments. "They were very loud," UConn's Maya Moore said. "They were doing their best to distract us. But we were listening to Coach." Led by Tina Charles, who scored 22 points on 9-for-10 shooting with 11 rebounds and three blocks, the Huskies pounded No. 16 seed Southern 95-39 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Moore added 21 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals.

UConn rolls over Southern

NORFOLK, VA — Southern brought its hurricane defense north for Sunday’s first-round game of the NCAA women‘s basketball tournament. Problem was, the Jaguars ran into a Category 5 storm in top-seeded UConn, which blew out No. 16 seed Southern 95-39 in a first-round game of the Dayton region at the Constant Center. The Southwestern Athletic Conference champion and its rockin’ band refused to be discouraged by the 56-point beating suffered at the hands of the Huskies (34-0), who are looking to add a seventh national title to their legacy, which includes an NCAA-record 73 straight victories.

“We call our defense ‘hurricane,’ and we brought it,” Southern’s Ashley Augerson said, celebrating 21 Huskies turnovers. Southern (23-9) also forced UConn into two shot-clock violations. And despite having no following behind its bench, won over the local fan support that cheered the underdog. Despite the gritty effort, the Jaguars couldn’t hang with the eye of the storm, and that would be All-Americans Tina Charles and Maya Moore, who are battling each other for National Player of the Year honors. The 6-foot-4 Charles scored 22 on a pristine effort that left her without a miss in her first seven attempts, and Moore’s methodical afternoon produced 21 points and eight assists.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Southern, champions of the SWAC, are 0-4 all time in the NCAA Tournament. But the Jaguars played hard, just as they promised they would, giving the Huskies a tougher time in many ways than Northeastern or Seton Hall did during similar losses."

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NCAA: No. 1 UConn vs. No. 16 Southern University

Location: Ted Constant Convocation Center, Norfolk, Va.

Tip-off: 12:16 p.m. (ESPN2).

Records: Southern 23-8, UConn 33-0.
Probable starters: Southern, 5-11 Jr. F Tiffany Foster (8.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg), 6-1 Jr. F Freda Allen (5.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg), 5-8 Sr. F Ashley Augerson (8.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg), 5-7 So. G Carneta Henderson (3.5 ppg), 5-9 Jr. G Hannah Kador (12.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg).

UConn, 5-10 So. G Tiffany Hayes (10.4 ppg), 5-10 So. G Caroline Doty (7.0 ppg), 6-0 Jr. F Maya Moore (17.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 4.0 apg, 2.2 spg), 6-4 Sr. C Tina Charles (18.4 ppg, 9.4 rpg), 5-10 Sr. G Kalana Greene (12.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg).

Noteworthy: UConn is the 11th women's team in history to begin the NCAA tournament without a loss. Of the first 10, five won national championships, including Texas in 1986, Tennessee in 1988 and UConn in 1995, 2002 and 2009. No team has even done it twice in a row. Moore, a junior, said this tournament has a different feel for UConn, coming off of last year's success and having to replicate that with a different team. "But we're still the same program," Moore said. "We're going to approach every game the same way and we'll focus on Southern." Said Moore: "When you lose that respect, when you lose that sense of urgency for every opponent, that's when you play poorly or get beat. It's the first game at the NCAA tournament. Where else would you rather be?" … It is the first meeting for UConn and Southern. It is also UConn's first game ever against a team from the SWAC. … Southern played one ranked opponent this season in then-No. 22 Cal, falling 78-47.

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Yipes! Southern faces top-ranked Connecticut in NCAA

They all gathered at a restaurant on Coursey Boulevard to celebrate a championship, eat some food and find out where they’ll play in the big dance. Yet as the Southern women’s basketball team watched ESPN on Monday night, waiting to learn their first-round matchup in the NCAA tournament, their banquet room erupted well before the Jaguars saw their school name on the TV screen, paired with Connecticut — the No. 1 team in the nation, winner of 72 straight games and the reigning national champion.

The first eruption, in fact, came when ESPN revealed Tennessee, the No. 1 seed in the Memphis Bracket, and its first-round opponent. It wasn’t Southern. It was Austin Peay. That left the Jaguars to wonder if they’d somehow earn a No. 15 seed, thereby avoiding the mighty Huskies. Minutes later, the second eruption came when ESPN unveiled Duke, the No. 2 seed in the Memphis Region, and its first-round opponent — Hampton, champion of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. That left the inevitable. That led to the third and final eruption from the room. It came when SU saw its name next to UConn, top-seeded team from the Dayton Region.

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Southern University women defeat Alabama State for tourney title

BOSSIER CITY, LA — What, exactly, is a picture worth? Consider the scene at 7:13 p.m. Saturday night inside the CenturyTel Center. Zoom in to center court, where the Southern women’s basketball team gathered at the end of their 60-47 victory over Alabama State. The championship game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament was over, and the Jaguars had won it all.

Hannah Kador, the former McKinley High School standout who earned tournament MVP honors, nearly crashed to the floor on her backside. Kador was on the business end of a tackle-football-style hug, administered by teammate Jamie Floyd. A few feet away, guards Tenesha Brown and Tiffany Foster each threw an arm around the other’s shoulder, like old buddies from the playground. Eventually, they broke out championship T-shirts and caps, and they gathered, holding index fingers toward the roof, posing for a team picture. What was that picture worth?

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Mississippi Valley tops Southern U for SWAC softball title

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas — Mississippi Valley State won its fifth straight Southwestern Athletic Conference softball title Sunday. And for the second year in a row and the fourth time in that run, Valley did so by beating Southern. As it was last season, Southern forced a second game only to have Valley win.

Tournament Most Outstanding Player Brittany Franklin went the distance as Valley won the championship game 6-3. Earlier, Southern junior Lauren Dodd’s sixth-inning grand slam lifted the Lady Jaguars to a 5-2 win in the first game.

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