PRAIRIE VIEW A&M GAME NOTES (pdf)

Four-time defending Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Prairie View A&M looks to even its Southwestern Athletic Conference record Monday when they visit Alcorn State. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

Prairie View A&M dropped its SWAC opener to Southern by a score of 67-51. Alcorn State is also looking for its first conference win after falling 75-66 at home to Texas Southern.

Last time out ...
The Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers opened Southwestern Athletic Conference play Saturday with a 67-51 loss at Southern. The Lady Panthers took control of the game early in the second half with a 15-0 run between the 17:12 and 12:07 marks to establish a 42-34 lead. However, the Lady Jaguars forced their way back into the game by outscoring their guests 28-5 over the last 10 minutes of the contest.

Shamiya Brooks led the Lady Panthers with 12 points and six rebounds, while teammate Alexus Parker added 11 points and five rebounds. Southern's Britney Washington came off the bench to score 16 points, and was 4-of-4 from the 3-point arc in the second half.
    

Comforts of home? No, home state!
This weekend's trip to Southern and Alcorn State will mark only the second time this season the Lady Panthers will have left the state of Texas. Though the Lady Panthers played only non-conference home game this season (a 90-38 win over Schreiner on Dec. 3), nine of their scheduled 12 non-conference games were played in Texas. This includes eight road games at fellow Texas opponents, with only two of those games – at TCU (Dec. 13) and at Texas–El Paso (Dec. 20) – more than 200 miles from the Prairie View A&M campus.

PVAMU played its only non-conference games out of state in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Shootout over Thanksgiving Weekend.
    

On the road
The Lady Panthers have not found the iron to be anymore unkind on the road than they do in other games, as the team is shooting 33.8 percent (202 of 597) during road games, the same field-goal percentage the Lady Panthers shoot in all games (33.8 percent, 264 of 781). When all games away from the Prairie View A&M campus are factored in, their field-goal percentage falls to 32 percent (227 of 709), but that includes two neutral-court losses to ranked opponents – then No. 5 Stanford and then No. 11 North Carolina in Hawaii.

Senior guard Jeanette Jackson (Las Vegas, Nev. / Sierra Vista High School) averages 16.8 points and 4.0 assists per game away from home, while Shamiya Brooks (West Point, Ga. / Troupe High School) leads the team in rebounding in such games with 6.9 boards per contest. The 6-foot-4 center also averages 6.5 points per game away from Prairie View.
    

Strength of schedule
Prairie View A&M's non-conference schedule featured four games against teams that were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Division I Women's Basketball poll at the start of the season. The Lady Panthers conluded their non-conference schedule Monday at Baylor; the Bears were ranked No. 6 in the latest Associated Press poll and USA Today Coaches' Top 25 polls. All four ranked teams on the Lady Panthers' schedule are currently ranked 15th or higher in both polls.

The Lady Panthers faced three of those teams in a stretch of four games – a 59-41 loss at then-No. 7 Texas A&M on Nov. 24 and losses to North Carolina and Stanford in Honolulu, Hawaii, over Thanksgiving weekend. The Tar Heels and Cardinals were ranked No. 11 and No. 5, respectively at the time of their games against PVAMU.
    

Jackson leading the SWAC
As Southwestern Athletic Conference teams prepare to open league play, Prairie View A&M senior Jeanette Jackson (pictured) has increased her lead in the conference's scoring race. The senior guard from Las Vegas, Nev. (Sierra Vista HS) leads the SWAC with a scoring average of 17.2 points per game. Jackson is shooting 32.2 percent from the floor (64 of 199), and has made 31 percent (25 of 81) of her 3-point attempts. She ranks second on the PVAMU squad in free-throw percentage, having made 75.3 (70 of 93) of her charity shots.

Jackson has also been among the best distributors in the SWAC, as she is tied for the conference lead in assists with 4.0 per game. She is currently tied with Diamonisha Sophus of Texas Southern.


Bombs away!
Jeanette Jackson and Chelsey Rosier have proven themselves to be threats behind the 3-point arc, as both players rank in the SWAC's Top 10 in terms of 3-point percentage. The duo is partially responsible for Prairie View A&M ranking second as a team in the SWAC in 3-point percentage (27.2 percent, 58 of 213).

Rosier has made 33.3 percent (15 of 45) of her long range shots, which is tied for the conference lead with Olivia Brown of Alcorn State. Rosier is averaging 4.8 points per game. Meanwhile, Jackson ranks sixth in the conference, having made a league-best 25 3-pointers out of her 81 attempts, good for 31 percent.
    

Transferring their talents
The Lady Panthers welcomed five transfers to their squad for the 2014-15 season. Four of them come from the junior college ranks and one – Bryan, Texas product Lamaria Cole – from Kansas University. Cole and Gulf Coast State College transfer Chelsey Rosier are averaging 5.5 points and 5.3 points per game, respectively. The Lady Panthers also welcomed Winthrop University transfer Christina Solmon (Waltham Park, Jamaica) to the roster in their last game at Texas–El Paso. 
    

Parker heating up
Sophomore guard Alexus Parker (Savannah, Ga. / Calvary Day School) has started to find her shooting touch at just the right time as the Lady Panthers open Southwestern Athletic Conference play this weekend. After making only nine of her first 60 field-goal attempts (15 percent) through Prairie View A&M's first six games, the 5-foot-10-inch guard has heated up significantly, knocking down 22 of her last 58 shots, good for a 37.9 shooting percentage. 

The Lady Panthers are 3-4 during that stretch. In her last four games, Parker has shot 41 percent (16 of 39) from the floor, which included a season-high 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting at Baylor last Monday.
    

All about the Braves, the Lady Braves
The Alcorn State Lady Braves enter Monday's matchup against the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers with a 1-9 record. Alcorn State is coming off a 75-66 loss at home to Texas Southern in its Southwestern Athletic Conference opener Saturday.

The Lady Braves rank last in the SWAC in scoring, averaging only 47.9 points per game. However, they do have one of the stingiest defenses in the league, giving up 65.4 points per contest, which ranks second behind Alabama State's 61.7 points per game given up.

Though points have been hard to find for the Lady Braves, one place they consistently get points is at the free throw line. Alcorn State leads the SWAC in free throw percentage, making 70.6 percent of their free throws (96 of 136). Unfortunately for the Lady Braves, they have shot fewer free throws in than any other team in the conference.

Midseason addition Norianna Hayes has provided an immediate impact for Alcorn State, as she leads the Braves with 17.0 points per game. Olivia Brown, who is tied for the league lead in 3-point percentage, averages 13.0 points per game.
    

Prairie View A&M vs. Alcorn State
Since the NCAA began sponsoring women's basketball in the 1981-82 season, Alcorn State owns a 51-20 record against Prairie View A&M, good for a .718 winning percentage against the Lady Panthers.

While Alcorn State has historically held the upper hand, Prairie View A&M has had the edge lately, winning seven of the previous nine meetings dating back to the 2010-11 season. Last season, the two teams split their two meetings, with each team winning on their home court (Prairie View A&M 71-68, Jan. 6 / Alcorn State 55-48, March 8).

Prior to the loss at Alcorn State to finish the regular season last year, Prairie View A&M had won its previous four against the Lady Braves, sweeping the 2012-13 series and defeating the Lady Braves twice in eight days in March, 2012 – in Lorman on March 3 and in the SWAC Championship game March 10 in Garland, Texas.