Texas Southern loses home opener to Norforlk State, 80-58

November 11, 2011

Friday morning, the Texas Southern Lady Tigers played a great 20 minutes of basketball. Friday afternoon, the Lady Tigers played a poor 20 minutes of basketball. As a result of the poor second half, the Lady Tigers lost the home opener of the 2011-2012 season to the Norfolk State Spartans 80-58.

Friday's game was touted as "Middle School Day" and thousands of middle school students from the Houston and Katy area attended the basketball game. The students watched an exciting first half of stellar shooting and solid play.

"I think we matched three thousand (students in attendance)," said TSU head coach Yolanda Wells-Broughton. "I'm so grateful to the schools that participated. I'm excited the kids had a great time."

TSU led 40-39 at halftime. The Lady Tigers made 14 of their 31 field goals (45.2%) while the Spartans hit 14 of their 28 shot attempts.

"When we played both ends of the floor, we were able to convert and score," said Coach Broughton.

The Spartans scored the first eight points of the second half before TSU regrouped to tie the game at 49. However, NSU's Rachel Gordon drained a jump shot to put the Spartans ahead by two points. The Lady Tigers' offense went ice cold the final 11 minutes of the second half; and, the Spartans pulled away and enjoyed leads as large as 25 before cruising to the 22 point victory.

The Lady Tigers made only five of their 33 field goal attempts in the second half while the Spartans connected on 64 percent (16 of 25) of the shot attempts.

"I have to commend my kids for playing hard," Coach Broughton acknowledged. "Norfolk State did a great job executing. We knew what to expect; and, we thought we would be able to put two halves like we started the first half."

Junior forward Gianne Fleming scored a team-high 13 points (5 of 17 fgs) for TSU while Rae Corbo's 26 points (9 of 14) led the Spartans. Whitney Long scored 18 (7 of 14) and Rachel Gordon and Batavia Owens each scored 14 for NSU to lead a balanced Spartans' scoring attack.

Texas Southern's next game is Saturday, November 19, at home versus Air Force. Tip off is set for 2 p.m.

"We have a lot of potential," Coach Broughton said. "There's no doubt in mind this is not how we're going to finish our year out. This game gave us a great run so that we can see what we look like.

"We have a lot of different threats. We have a lot of different players at multiple positions. We're going to be fine."