SU women in thick of tight SWAC race

Southern’s women’s basketball team remains part of a five-team logjam atop the Southwestern Athletic Conference after splitting a pair on the road last weekend.
The Jaguars (6-6, 3-1 SWAC) shook off a 54-53 loss to Grambling State last Saturday and knocked off Jackson State 62-55 last Monday to mathematically stay tied for first place with Alabama State and Alabama A&M.
SU, ASU (6-9, 3-1 SWAC) and AAMU (5-9, 3-1 SWAC) each have one more league win than two other teams with one SWAC loss—Prairie View A&M (5-10, 2-1 SWAC) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-9, 2-1 SWAC).
The Jags have a key tilt against UAPB Saturday at 2 p.m. at the F.G. Clark Activity Center as former SU assistant Danny Evans brings his Lady Lions squad on The Bluff. The action will shift to Monday night when SU entertains Mississippi Valley (4-9, 1-2 SWAC) at 5:30 p.m.
A sweep of UAPB and MVSU will give head coach Sandy Pugh her 100th SWAC victory. More importantly, a SU two-step will help clear some space atop the SWAC standings in the early part of the conference schedule.
In Jackson, Miss., Hannah Kador led the Jaguars with 16 points while Freda Allen missed her 19th game with double-digit rebounds by one picking up nine rebounds and scoring eight points.
Southern shot 45 percent from the field and 50 percent from the three-point line to outscore J-State 30-17 in the second half.
The Jags harassed JSU into shooting 6-of-27 from the field in the second half but, but the SWAC leading scorer Erlexis Cooper put up 27 points and grabbed 10 boards to pace JSU.
In Grambling, GSU led by as many as 17 points early in the second half as its bench outscored Southern’s 35-6 in the game.
Southern took advantage of a hack-happy Lady Tiger squad, hitting 23 of 24 from the charity stripe for a season high. SU outscored Grambling 33-22 from the field in the second half, but could not hit a shot at the end of the game.
Jackson led the Jags in scoring with 14 points.