Women’s Basketball To Face Arizona Wednesday Night

• The Texas Southern women’s basketball team heads west seeking their first win of the year and the series against Arizona on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. The contest is part of the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series.

• This marks the second straight year TSU will face Arizona and the first Pac- 12 opponent of the 2022 season. Arizona defeated TSU 93-38 last season in Tucson, Ariz.

• Freshman Taniya Lawson stepped up in a big way against Florida State with a career-best 18 point performance in 39 minutes.

• Andriana Avent was named the SWAC Player of the Week on Nov. 30 after recording double-digits against Rice (22) and Ole Miss (13). She surpassed the 500-point career mark at TSU in the loss against Ole Miss.

• 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.

• 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 24 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 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 has played seven freshmen this season and has given starts to 11 players as the coaching staff is searching for the right starting combination heading into SWAC play.