Jan. 5, 2006
Final Stats
Houston, Texas - The Southern University women's basketball team pulled out a tough Southwestern Athletic Conference victory when they defeated the Lady Tigers of Texas Southern 64-53. The win gives head coach Sandy Pugh her 100th win "on the bluff."
"It feels as good as the first one," said head coach Sandy Pugh. "Time flies when good things are happening that's why I can't really believe it's been that long."
Southern (5-6, 2-0) battled in the first half with TSU as there were three lead changes and three ties. SU shot 38% from the field while Texas Southern connected on 11-26 shots for 42%. The free-throw line was friendly to the Blue and Gold as they shot 8-10 for 80%. Sophomore Megan Berard led SU with 7 points. All-American candidate Rolanda Monroe put up 6 points and grabbed 3 rebounds. Red-shirt sophomore Frederika Lewis had a total of 5 points to help SU take a 30-29 half-time lead.
"The team is really far from where I want them to be but I see spurts in practice," Pugh said. "In the first half we took two many threes and if we don't have to then I would rather not take them. In the first half they made 5 three-pointers which put then on pace for 10 for the game. I told the team that if Texas Southern made 10 threes we would lose the game. We came out and held them to 2-4 from the three-point line and 6-21 from the field in the second half."
The second half started with a jumper by Monroe to put SU up 32-29, for a lead that the Blue and Gold would never relinquish. Southern dominated in the second half by feeding the ball to the lane and allowing Lewis to catch, turn and shoot. The Beaumont native completed the game with 15 points and 3 rebounds. Monroe ended her second SWAC contest of the season with 16 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 6 rebounds. The point total puts the Preseason first team All-SWAC nominee 34 points closer to becoming the all-time scoring leader in SU women's basketball history. She is also 2 three-pointers from becoming the all-time three-point leader.
"Rolanda is a model player, she completes her fourth year of basketball this year and will also graduate in May on time," Pugh said. "She exemplifilies what a student-athlete should be."
Southern heads home for their first time this year to play conference rival Grambling State University on Friday, January 6th at 5:00 p.m. The contest will be tape delayed on ESPNU. This is the first time in Southwestern Athletic Conference history that a contest will be played on a Friday night.
