Women’s Basketball Haunted By Another 4th Quarter Setback In Loss To Bethune-Cookman

A 12-4 run to begin the fourth quarter turned a 51-46 deficit into a 58-55 lead for the Texas Southern University women’s basketball team, but a frigid shooting performance that followed would ultimately see the Tigers succumb to a 66-62 loss against Bethune-Cookman University on Monday night.

Five Tigers scored during the 12-4 run including Anela Thomas and Taniya Lawson. Thomas’ three with 7:47 gave TSU (1-21, 1-1 SWAC) its first lead of the second half and Lawson’s driving layup with 6:55 to play gave TSU its largest lead of the game (three) at 58-55.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, points then become hard to come by as TSU would go 0-for-8 from the field, 0-for-2 from long range and a mere 4-for-4 from the charity stripe over the final 6:55 of the game to take the loss.

Neither team had a particularly fantastic start to the contest, but BCU (9-12, 8-3 SWAC) was able to take an 18-12 advantage into the second quarter where the Wildcats would lead by as many as eight several times throughout the stanza.

The third quarter would see the Wildcats open with an 8-2 run to go up by 10 at 41-31 with 6:27 left in the period. The 10-point advantage was the largest of the night for either squad. Micah Gray would lead a frantic comeback over a 4:28 stretch in the third to pull the Tigers to within 47-46 with 1:35 to go in the period.

Gray tallied five points during the 15-6 run for TSU, who was 3-for-7 from the field including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc and 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. The 15-6 run at the end of the third coupled with the 12-4 run to start the fourth should have meant a win for TSU, but turnovers and a lack scoring late in the game would be the demise of the Tigers.

A couple bright spots to point out is the sheer dominance the Tigers had on the rebounding category over the Wildcats. TSU held a 42-29 advantage in the category including limiting BCU to just six offensive rebounds.

Andriana Avent led TSU in scoring with 15 points and was closely followed by Gray with 14.

A trio of Tigers (Donterria Brown, Skye Green and Jaida Belton) hauled in eight rebounds each to lead both teams. Cameraah Langston was the top scorer for the Wildcats with 14 points in just 15 minutes of action off the bench to keep BCU in the top three of the SWAC standings with just seven games remaining in the regular season.
 
UP NEXT
A trip to the Bayou State is on the docket for TSU as the Tigers are scheduled to play Grambling State and Southern on a road trip through Louisiana this weekend. Tipoff against Grambling State on Saturday is at 3:30 p.m. CST while Monday’s contest against Southern tips at 5:30 p.m. CST.