Women’s Basketball Closes Out Homestand Against Grambling State

• Texas Southern looks to reverse its two-game losing streak with a contest versus the Grambling State Lady Tigers Monday night inside the H&PE Arena.

• Second-year head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke returns to the TSU sidelines for the first time since 2012-13. She spent the 2012-13 season at TSU and led them to the SWAC Regular Season Championship for the first time in school history.

• Guard Ciani Cryor is averaging 17.2 points, 6.5 assists and 3.9 steals. Nationally, she ranks third in assists and fourth in steals per game. 

• Head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is 58-38 all-time in the month of February and 9-3 at TSU. 

• Cooper-Dyke is 15-1 all-time against Grambling State. She last faced GSU last month, Jan. 20, when Texas Southern won 89-85 at Grambling. 

• Grambling State was picked sixth in the SWAC Preseason poll. Justice Coleman  leads the team with 13.1 points per game while Alexus Holt leads with 4.4 rebounds per game. 

• TSU Senior forward Niya Mitchell completed the trifecta as she was named the SWAC’s Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year in addition to earning first team honors. A 5-10 graduate student from Bay City, Texas, Mitchell is averaging a double-double (15.5/11.9) and ranks 5th nationally in rebounding and tied for 15th in steals. She has eleven double-doubles this season.

• TSU was picked fifth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason poll after finishing the 2018-19 season in fifth. TSU has a revamped roster with only five letterwiners retuning while they welcome nine newcomers and two redshirts. 

• TSU’s RPI through games played Feb. 15 is 128 and is 8 points higher than the next closest team in the SWAC. TSU has the sixth-highest RPI in the state of Texas.