Conference play for women’s basketball starts with home teams finding success …
• Four of the five conference teams that played on January 3 found success on Saturday. The lone team to fall at home was the Alcorn State Lady Braves (to Prairie View A&M).
Ten points or better …
All five contests were decided by at least ten points. Prairie View A&M won by 44 points (largest margin) while both Alabama A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff each won by 13 (smallest margin).
Lady Tigers / Lady Hornets to meet on ESPNU …
Grambling State and Alabama State will meet in a nationallytelevised
contest on ESPNU Monday, January 5. Start time for the game is 6:00 pm.
Overview: This nationally-televised contest should be a quality barometer of the status of these two programs. Alabama State is 4-8 after non-conference play while Grambling State is 2-9 finishing the non-conference slate. Veteran head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson looks to return the Lady Hornets to the form that won them the conference title in 2003. First-year head coach Donnita Drain and the new-look GSU Lady Tigers get their first crack at the competitive SWAC women’s division.
Last season: Alabama State won both contests against Grambling State: 70-51 at GSU (Jan. 5) and 64-48 in Montgomery (Mar. 6). Combined, the Lady Hornets shot 49.5 percent from the floor in the series while holding GSU to 29.9 percent. Lady Hornet forward Erica Lumpkin averaged 18 points and 4.5 rebounds over the two games. GSU forward Gabrielle Fleming averaged 11 points and seven rebounds for the Lady Tigers