Texas Southern Routs Alcorn to Claim Back-to-Back SWAC Tournament Championships

Head coach Johnny Jones, and his Texas Southern basketball team have been here before. The Tigers are back-to-back winners of the SWAC Basketball Tournament after defeating Alcorn State 87-62.

TSU will represent the conference in the 2022 NCAA Tournament with another shot at upsetting a higher-ranked Division 1 program, as they did in 2021.  The Tigers must win a “Play-In” game before advancing to the 64-team tournament.

The Tigers claimed the championship with a great team effort and tremendous defensive performance from forward Brison Gresham.

Jones’ team did not have a single player to average double figures during the regular season. Today, the TSU team had five players in double digits – Lawson (14 pts), Henry (15 pts), Nicholas (11 pts), Gresham (10 pts), and Walker III (17 pts).

Walker’s 17 points led the team in the 25-point rout over the Braves. TSU scored at 57.5% from the floor and only trailed for 29 seconds of the contest. The bench provided a spark and added 29 points. It was a team effort that could pay off huge in a highly contested NCAA tournament field this season.

Alcorn had a tremendous regular season as the SWAC regular-season champions, but tonight wasn’t their night. Last season the Braves won 6 SWAC games, and this season they had 14 conference wins and were seeded No. 1 in the 2022 SWAC Basketball Tournament.

TSU’s PJ Henry was named the 2022 SWAC Men’s Tournament MVP.

Alcorn coach Landon Bussie felt the Braves didn’t play their “best basketball” today. Yet, he was optimistic his squad would have an opportunity to “get into the NIT.” He credited coach Jones and Texas Southern for being “more physical” and “wanted it more” than Alcorn.

Texas Southern is the winningest NCAA Division I HBCU men’s basketball program.   Coach Jones proved that good coaching of great team players could go far during the tournament season.

♦ Culled from HBCU Legends – Writer: KYLE T. MOSLEY