Men
Texas Southern 73, Alabama State 61
Aaric Murray scored 16 points as No. 2 seed Texas Southern defeated the Alabama State Hornets 73-61 in the semifinal round of the SWAC tournament.
D’Aris Scarver scored 14 points to go with 14 rebounds and Madarious Gibbs tallied 12 points for the second-seeded Tigers, who are now 19-14 overall with the win.
Alabama State, ending the season with an overall record of 19-13, had three players to score in double-figures. Jamel Water had 21 points, Luther Page had 13 points and Terrance LeFlore had 12 points.
Texas Southern will face Prairie View in finals Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Postgame comments are below.
Prairie View A&M 55, Alabama A&M 49
Tre Hagood’s 13 points and 8 rebounds led the eight-seeded Prairie View Panthers to a 55-49 upset victory over No. 5 seed Alabama A&M.
The win sends the Panthers to the SWAC tournament finals to face second-seeded Texas Southern Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
The Panthers (12-22) also saw double-figure scoring from Demondre Chapman who had 10 points with 8 rebounds and Montrael Scott who also scored 10 points.
Alabama A&M, in a losing effort, got a 13 point performance out of Jeremy Crutcher and 11 points from Brandon Ellis. The Bulldogs end the season with an overall record of 15-16.
See post game comments below.
Women
Texas Southern 79, Jackson State 77 (OT)
Alexus Johnson ‘s 12 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals were key in helping Texas Southern win a 79-77 overtime thriller against third-seeded Jackson State to advance to the SWAC tournament finals.
SWAC Player of the Year Jazzmin Parker led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 21 points, while Ashley Ferguson added 18 points.
Jackson State’s Dominique Brothern led all scorers with 22 points which included six 3-pointers.
The No. 2 seed Texas Southern Lady Tigers (20-11) will be making their first appearance in the conference finals when they play Saturday against No. 4 seed Prairie View.
Below are postgame comments.
Prairie View A&M 72, Southern 43
In what was a lopsided game from start to finish, Prairie View took care of business in defeating top-seeded Southern 72-43 a SWAC tournament semifinal game in Houston at the Toyota Center.
Jeanette Jackson scored a game high 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field for the Lady Panthers (14-17). Alexus Parker, Gabrielle Scott and Larissa Scott all tallied 10 points each.
Southern, ending the season with a record of 20-9, could only shoot 25.4 percent (15-of-59) from the floor for the game. The leading scorer for the Lady Jags was Jasmine Jefferson with 9 points.
Prairie View, the No. 4 seed, will face second-seeded and area rival Texas Southern in the conference finals Saturday at noon.
Below are postgame comments from both coaches.