Saturday, March 10, 2018

Texas Southern falls to Grambling State 66-59 in SWAC semifinal

Story and Photos by Kristina McKay and Tommy Boatman
Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (June 9, 2018)  Without Player of the Year Joyce Kennerson, the Texas Southern University Lady Tigers basketball team fell to Grambling State dashing their hopes of a repeat title on Friday in the SWAC championship semifinals. The Grambling State Lady Tigers avenged last year’s tournament final loss, defeating the defending champions Texas Southern 66-59 to advance to the 2018 SWAC Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game.


The Tiger’s had a rough first half which culminated into in-fighting and insults being hurled at each other and subsequently having to face the wrath of their Coach Johnetta Hayes-Perry whom it seemed had simultaneously gotten the in check and lit a fire under their backsides. They took the lead and were playing strong, even taking a lead into half time, but by the third quarter Grambling had all the momentum taking back the lead and TSU just couldn’t bounce back.

The MVT, Most Valuable Tiger, was the Pink haired warrior number 44 Taylor Robinson who had 8 rebounds and a game leading 17 points in 20 minutes of game play followed closely behind by Kaitlyn Palmer with 16 points and 4 rebounds in 40 total minutes. Grambling’s shining star was Jasmin Boyd who put up 19 points with 4 rebounds in 26 minutes. However, their defensive monsters Shakayla Hill with 14 rebounds put up 15 points and Monisha Neal with 10 rebounds contributed 11 points.
Grambling will face a tough opponent in the #1 seed Southern for the Women’s Championship, with their Defensive player of the year Briana Green and Coach of the year Sandy Pugh.

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