Women’s Basketball Prepares For Home Opener Tonight

• The Texas Southern women’s basketball team opens up its home slate Thursday night as they’ll face Old Dominion inside the H&PE Arena at 5:30 p.m.

• Both teams will meet for the first time ever as ODU, based in Norfolk, Va., is in its first year as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The Monarchs dropped their season opener at Florida Gulf Coast 81-62 on Monday.

• TSU head coach Vernette Skeete inherits a program which finished fourth in the SWAC last season and fell in the first round of the 2022 SWAC Tournament on a late putback. This year’s roster, which has been picked to finish eighth in the SWAC, is drastically different with nine newcomers and six returnees. Six of the nine newcomers are true freshmen as three started the other night at UTA.

• Andriana Avent is TSU’s lone All-SWAC returnee as she was a scoring machine for TSU during her first season. She averaged 18.1 points in 23 games played. Avent has scored in double figures in 22 consecutive games dating back to the non-conference finale at USC on Dec. 18, 2021. Avent had nine games with 20-plus points, including four with 30-plus including a season-high 35 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Jan. 8.

• TSU will have three home games this season in preseason play. The Tigers will host Old Dominion, Rice and Tulsa inside the H&PE Arena this fall.

• TSU will face off against teams from seven conferences in 2022-23. TSU will square off against teams from the American (2), Sun Belt (1), Conference USA (2), SEC (2), WAC (2), ACC and Pac-12.

• TSU started three freshmen on Monday and played seven overall.

• ODU is 3-0 all-time against the SWAC with games against Alabama A&M, Florida A&M and Grambling State.