The Southern women's basketball team is looking to carry the dominance it established in the Southwestern Athletic Conference during the regular season into the league's tournament.
The Jaguars (17-14) strung together conference winning streaks of six and eight games on their way to the league's regular-season championship with a 15-3 record. It was Southern's second regular-season title under coach Carlos Funchess and its first since 2019.
Funchess was honored Monday as the SWAC Coach of the Year, and leading scorer Aniya Gourdine was named second-team All-SWAC. Not one for distractions, Funchess has his team concentrating on the SWAC Tournament now.
Funchess previously directed Southern to tournament titles and their subsequent NCAA berths in 2019 and 2023.
"There's pre-conference play and then conference play. This is what I call our third season," Funchess said of tournament play. "Now the goal is to win three games in a row and go to the NCAA Tournament, but you can't get to three if you don't start with one."
That one is a quarterfinal contest against Mississippi Valley State (8-22) at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta. The ninth-seeded Devilettes were a long shot to reach the tournament two weeks ago, but they won their final three regular-season games to earn their spot.
On Tuesday, Valley's hot streak continued as it defeated No. 8 Florida A&M 68-65 in overtime to advance. Valley was 7 of 20 from 3-point range and was led by Jaylia Reed's 18 points. Reed's basket with less than a minute left in regulation sent the game to overtime tied 57-57.
Southern and Valley met just once during the regular season, and the Jaguars posted a 71-51 win at Itta Bena, Mississippi, on Jan. 27. Aleighyah Fontenot and Gourdine each scored 15 points for the Jaguars, who led by 18 points going into the fourth quarter.
The win was Southern's 21st consecutive over the Devilettes as the Jaguars improved to 33-6 all-time against them.
The teams have played once before in the conference tournament. In 2019, Southern won 51-44 in a first-round game played at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
This season, defense has been the calling card of the Jaguars, who rate near the top of numerous conference defensive statistics. The Jaguars allow a league-low 58.1 points per game, and are second in field-goal defense (38.9%) and turnovers forced per game (20.1).
Even though Southern dropped its final regular-season game 48-35 to Alabama A&M on Saturday, the Jaguars defense was solid.
Funchess said the team looked ready when it practiced in Atlanta on Tuesday.
"We were ready to practice and get back to work," he said. "Everybody was focused and bouncing around even though we couldn't do game prep because we didn't know the opponent. The (quarterfinal) is going to be a tough one, but we'll be ready to go."
