Women’s Basketball Closes Out Homestand Against UAPB

• Texas Southern finishes a two-game homestand Monday, Jan. 27, versus Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 5:30 p.m. 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 off to a sizzling start as she’s averaging 17.9 points, 7.5 assists and 4.1 steals. She ranks third nationally in assists per game and third in steals. 

• Head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is 70-40 all-time in the month of January and 13-2 at TSU. 

• Cooper-Dyke is 12-2 all-time against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. She last faced UAPB in 2013 when she coached at Texas Southern during the 2012-2013 season. 

• Arkansas-Pine Bluff was picked 10th in the SWAC Preseason poll. Keyonia Harris  leads the team with 10.5 points per game while Nissa Sam-Grant leads with 4.86 rebounds per game. UAPB is 2-4 in SWAC play. Both Cooper and UAPB head coach Dawn Brown are former head coaches at Prairie View A&M.

• 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 (16.1/11.9) and ranks 5th nationally in rebounding and 11th in steals. She has nine 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 as of Jan. 26 is 105 and is 65 points higher than the next closest team in the SWAC. TSU has the sixth-highest RPI in the state of Texas.