Not Even Close

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- Southern, the No. 7 seed and last year’s Southwestern Athletic Conference champions, (5-22) lost 49-80 in the first round of SWAC Tournament to No. 1 seed Prairie View (17-13) at the Birmingham-Jefferson Complex Center Arena Wednesday afternoon.
Previously, when these two teams played each other on March 1, the Lady Panthers won by four points defeating the Jaguars 60-56.
But this time the deficit was not nearly as close.
“We just kind of played basketball the way that we’ve done it all year,” said Southern head coach Sandy Pugh. “And that’s standing around and watching the game go by.”
The Jaguars had no answer for the outside shooting of Lady Panthers’ junior guard Shavonne Smith. She started the game shooting and making a 3-pointer and was 4-of-4 in 3-point shots by halftime.
“Shavonne was big in getting them (the Lady Panthers) going by starting the game with a 3-point shot,” said Pugh. “Shavonne kept control of the game on both ends of the floor. She shot the ball extremely well.”
Overall Smith shot 11-of-14 from the field, shooting 6-of-7 from the 3-point line and 3-of-3 in free throws. She concluded the game with 31 points.
Junior forward Krystal Huggins led Southern with 13 points and junior-red shirt center Fredrieka Lewis added 11 points.
Pugh said that the Lady Panthers execution was better then her Jaguars and that the women got outplayed by a better team. The Lady Panthers took advantage of the Jaguars sluggishness and speedily took control of the game.
In the first half, Southern’s lack of intensity as a whole caused them to trail 13 points behind Prairie View by halftime. While the Jaguars slacked, the Lady Panthers concentrated and kept a unified rhythm of their own and bolted to a 37-24 halftime lead.
Lady Panther Twila Stokes, a sophomore forward dominated the inside shooting 4-of-5 from the field in the first half.
In the second half the Jaguars game didn’t get any better. They came out with lackadaisicalness not only in their faces but in their every movement.
“I thought that it hurt us momentum wise and it was a big let down,” said Pugh. “We didn’t cover, we didn’t communicate, plain and simple we didn’t guard, and that’s what happens…you get to go home early.”
With the SWAC championship title gone Southern is now preparing for next year’s season and hope to be able to get the title back.
“We got outplayed by a better team,” said Pugh. I thought that their execution was better than ours. We didn’t do a good job of guarding the perimeter at all. This might be a blessing in disguise for us to get back to where we need to be. I guarantee that we won’t be sitting here next year.”

Gallery • 1 Photos

Ken Moore

Jaguars center Fredrieka Lewis muscles a shot over Prarie View's Gaati Werema in the first half of the quarterfinal playoff game at the SWAC Basketball Tournament in Birmingham. Lewis, the tournament's MVP last year, finished the lob-sided Lady Panther's victory with 11 of the teams 49 points.