Women’s Basketball Drops Contest At Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. – Andriana Avent’s game-high 21-point performance was not enough as the Texas Southern women’s basketball team fell 89-55 at the University of Arizona on Wednesday night.

Avent is now averaging 16.6 points per game following her third game of the season scoring at least 21 points while her 6-for-10 shooting from three-point range was her second-best performance from long range as a Tiger after having made 6-of-9 in an 87-77 victory of Southern University on Feb. 14, 2022.

After having just played at Florida State three nights prior, fans of TSU had to wonder if the Tigers would have their legs under them and not be road weary heading into another battle with a Power 5 school on the opposite side of the country and the Tigers came out in the first half and proved they could hang with the Wildcats trailing 28-17 at the end of the first quarter and 51-40 at the half.

TSU (0-9) was down 21-10 midway through the first quarter when the Tigers used a 7-0 over the next almost three minutes to cut the deficit down to 21-17 thanks to a three from Avent and a pair of layups from Micah Gray.

Arizona (8-1) would eventually stretch its lead back out to 12 points with a free throw just 18 seconds into the second stanza.

The Tigers would battle it out with the Wildcats over the next few minutes showing they could hang around and would use a 7-2 run when trailing 32-23 to cut it down to 34-30 thanks to layups by Avent and Hill then an Avent three-pointer with 5:31 to go in the first half.

An Arizona layup followed by a pair of free throws from Kamryn Bates would keep the deficit at four with 4:56 left in the opening half and that would prove to be the closest the game would be the rest of the way as the legs finally started to give out on a Tigers squad that had just three home games to start the season.

Arizona would use a 13-for-34 performance from the field in the second half compared to just 4-for-24 from TSU from the field with the Wildcats winning the half by a score of 38-15.

The Wildcats had four players in double digits with Cate Reese leading the way with 20 as Arizona collected 35 points off the bench.

Taniya Lawson tallied nine points, six rebounds and four steals to go along with the two steals and two rebounds that Avent added to her 21 points.

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TSU will have a little bit of time to rest from game speed and get some practice in before welcoming Tulsa to the H&PE Arena on Thursday, Dec. 22 for an afternoon affair with the Golden Hurricane. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. CST.