BATON ROUGE, La. – Sandy Pugh will be returning to Southern University, however this time on the opposite end of the court as she leads the Prairie View A&M University women's basketball team to face Southern on Saturday in the opening game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference play for both teams at 3 p.m. at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.

Radio coverage will be provided on the Prairie View A&M Sports Network online at pvpanthers.com/women beginning at 2:45 p.m., with live stats also available.

In preparing for SWAC play, the Panthers enter Saturday's contest 3-7.  In their last outing, PVAMU fell 70-57 against #23 ranked Texas A&M prior to the Christmas break.   Dominique Newman led the team with 14 points, five assists, and four rebounds, while, Artavia Ford followed behind with 13 points, three blocks, and three steals. Mariah Campbell contributed a season high eight points, and four rebounds.  

Ford currently leads the team in scoring with 10.9 ppg, while Shala Dobbins is averaging 10.3 ppg.  Junior transfer Ke'Asia Williams leads the team on the boards averaging 7.4 rebounds per game.  As a team the Panthers leads the conference in several different categories.  They are averaging 63.2 ppg., shooting 74.2 percent from the free throw line, 34.7 percent in field goal percentage defense, and 27.4 percent in three point percentage defense, and has 144 assists on the season.

Southern is coming off of a two-week break as well.  The Jaguars played their last contest on Dec. 21, falling to Michigan 76-35.  Skylar O'Bear leads the Jags in scoring averaging 10.5 ppg.  She is followed in scoring by Brittany Rose, who is averaging 8.1 ppg.  Alyric Scott leads the team in rebounding averaging 4.8 rpg.  As a team Southern is averaging 56.1 ppg, (6th SWAC), and has a .322 3-pt shooting field goal percentage, as they are ranked second in the conference.  They have 140 team assists, as the Jags are second behind PVAMU.

The Panthers faced Southern three times last season with the last contest in the SWAC Championship Tournament semi-finals at Delmar Fieldhouse in Houston.  Southern was able to edge by Prairie View by the score of 84-76.  Earlier in the season the two teams split with the Panthers opening with a 69-62 home win, and falling at the Jags place later in the season 96-58.  



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