Women’s Basketball To Host Rice Wednesday Afternoon At 2 p.m.

• The Texas Southern women’s basketball team returns to the H&PE Arena to take on Rice University at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

• 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.

• Against UTEP and Texas A&M, the starting lineup has consisted of four freshman and a sophomore in the starting lineup.

• 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. Freshman Donterria Brown is the top rebounder with 6. boards per game and fourth-leading scorer with 6.8 points per outing. Freshman Micah Gray, the current SWAC Player of the Week, has had back-to-back monster outings with 26 points at UTEP and 27 at Texas A&M.