Men
Texas Southern 79, Grambling State 54
In his SWAC tournament debut, Aaric Murray justified the bevy of postseason conference awards he snagged days ago.
Murray, who was voted the SWAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, played up to that billing scoring 18 points and tallying six blocks leading Texas Southern to an impressive 79-54 win over Grambling State Wednesday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the SWAC tournament.
Madarius Gibbs chipped in with 15 points for Texas Southern and D’Angelo Scott added 13 points and 10 rebounds to help the second-seeded Tigers advance to the next round.
Prairie View A&M 64, Southern 46
After winning just eight games during the regular season, Prairie View seemed to stand little chance of advancing in the SWAC tournament.
After dispatching Mississippi Valley State in their tournament opener on Tuesday, 22-loss Prairie View pulled off a shocker beating top-seeded Southern 64-46 Wednesday night at the Toyota Center.
Prairie View was led by junior guard Tre Hagood, who poured in 16 points and hauled eight rebounds in the win over conference regular season champion Southern.
During the regular season, Hagood only averaged 6.0 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Through two games in the SWAC tournament, Hagood has averaged 15.5 points per game and 7.0 boards.
Hagood’s front court mate Jules Montgomery chipped in with 12 points and five rebounds.
For Southern, the loss ends what turned out to be a roller coaster two- week period that included a postseason ban handed down by the NCAA and regular season conference championship.
Even if Southern mustered up enough resolve to win the conference tournament for the second straight season, it would have been all for naught in terms of securing an NCAA tournament bid.
Women
Southern 80, Alabama A&M 66
Brittany Washington was one of five double-figure scorers in Southern’s 80-66 win over Texas Southern Tuesday.
In 24 minutes of action in the quarterfinal game, Washington scored 17 points while Adrian Sanders added 18 of her own to help Southern advance to the semifinals on Friday.
Texas Southern 82, Grambling State 74
Powered by a 19-point performance from Brianna Sidney, Texas Southern advanced to the semifinal round of the SWAC tournament with a 82-74 win over Grambling State.
Texas Southern shot a blistering 50 percent from the field in the first half building a comfortable 42-33 lead by halftime. Coming off the bench Alexus Johnson sparked Texas Southern’s surge with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Texas Southern will play Friday in the semifinal game versus the winner of Jackson State-Mississippi Valley State.
