Women’s Basketball To Face UCF In Non-Conference Finale Tonight

• TSU closes out non-conference action at Central Florida on Thursday night in Orlando at 5 p.m. CST.

• Tonight’s meeting will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools as both schools feature a pair of first-year head coaches who were at SEC programs the previous season.

• Texas Southern nearly pulled off a huge upset in its last outing that ultimately ended in an 83-80 loss at home to Tulsa. The Tigers were down by 11 points with 38 seconds remaining in the game before a furious rally got them to within striking distance. Micah Gray had an attempt from halfcout to tie the game, but the shot was no good.

• 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 has faced 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 if searching for the right starting combination heading into SWAC play.