Texas Southern University entered the SWAC tournament as the number two seed behind the defending champions Southern. TSU earned a ticket in the NCAA tournament and will have to face off against Cal Poly. The winner plays against Wichita State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
In the SWAC championship, Prairie View faced off against TSU after making a phenomenal run. The PVAMU Tigers went 11-22 for the regular season and made a huge upset against Southern.
The TSU tigers (19-14) had an amazing performance against PVAMU. Star forward Aaric Murray had a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds. TSU had four members with double figures and shot almost 50 percent from the field. Madarious Gibbs had 15 points and Jose Rodriguez contributed with 13 points as well.
Prairie View didn’t go out without a fight by only losing by 5 points. Their leading scorer was junior guard Montrael Scott with 19 points and shot 70 percent from the field. Three players for PVAMU scored in double digits but that wasn’t enough to hold off against TSU.
Murray and Gibbs led TSU to an amazing victory from a team that was unable to compete in the NCAA tournament due to NCAA sanctions. The game was about runs as TSU went on a 13-2 run to end the first half of play and TSU wanted to set the tempo early.
“Getting off to a fast start was really important for the standpoint of relaxing our guys,” Davis said.
TSU strong second half performance was the key to seal the victory including a Murray block with 40 seconds left of play when they were up 5.
Murray was the tournament MVP and averaged a total of 17 points. Texas Southern defeated Prairie View 78-73 and looks to continue their run in the NCAA tournament.
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