Women’s Basketball Back In Action At Monday Night At Prairie View A&M

• Texas Southern women’s basketball is back in action for the first time since Dec. 21 as they’ll head northwest to face off against Prairie View A&M on Monday evening in their SWAC opener. 

• Third-year head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is back on the TSU sidelines for the second straight season. She led TSU to the SWAC Regular Season Championship for the first time in school history in 2012-13 in addition to a second-place finish last season. The team made it to the semifinals of the SWAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed but the season was cut short due to COVID-19.

• Head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is 71-40 all-time in the month of January and 14-2 at TSU.

• Cooper-Dyke is 3-2 all-time against Prairie View A&M. She last faced the Panthers on Feb. 8, 2020, when TSU lost 50-47 at PVAMU. 

• Texas Southern women’s basketball was picked to finish second in the annual Southwestern Athletic Conference poll while the duo of Niya Mitchell and Ataiya Bridges earned preseason All-SWAC honors as the league announced its annual preseason poll and all-conference teams. 

• PVAMU is ahead of the curve with a pair of SWAC contests under its belt. The Panthers dropped their first two contests at Alcorn State and Southern. Led by SWAC veteran head coach Sandy Pugh, PVAMU is 1-4 overall. Diana Rosenthal leds the team with 12.6 points per game while Tiffany Tullis follows with 9.4 points. Tullis also leads the team in rebounds with 6.8 boards followed by six from Rosenthal.

• TSU returns eight letterwinners and adds four newcomers in 2020-21. However, TSU has to replace four starters as only Niya Mitchell returns.