BATON ROUGE, La. (Interstat) — Southern used a dominant fourth quarter to defeat Prairie View 70-55 in a Southwestern Athletic Conference women’s basketball opener Thursday at Clark Activity Center. The Lady Jaguars, who led 32-24 at halftime, broke open a tight game by outscoring the Lady Panthers 21-11 in the final period. Southern capitalized on Prairie View mistakes, scoring 33 points off turnovers. Mykayla Cunningham led Southern with 14 points. CJ Wilson paced Prairie View with 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Southern improved to 5-7 overall. Prairie View fell to 2-10. An announced crowd of 3,765 attended the New Year’s Day contest.

SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW BATON ROUGE, La. (Interstat) — The Southern Lady Jaguars and the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers will look to reverse pre-conference struggles when they open Southwestern Athletic Conference play on New Year’s Day at the Clark Activity Center. Southern (4-7) enters with a marginally better record than Prairie View (2-9), but both teams have faced rigorous non-conference slates. The Lady Jaguars have shown flashes, notably with a three-game win streak from Dec. 3-12 that included a 70-62 victory at Houston and a 63-57 win at Arizona. Prairie View’s two wins came against lower-division opponents Huston-Tillotson and Texas College, and the Lady Panthers are currently on a five-game skid against a gauntlet of in-state foes. The matchup features two of the league’s top scoring guards. Prairie View will lean heavily on Crystal Schultz, who is coming off a 24-point, five-rebound performance in a 93-60 loss at Texas A&M on Dec. 21. Over her last three full outings, Schultz is averaging 23.7 points per game. Southern counters with Jaylia Reed, a consistent contributor who scored 15 points in the Lady Jaguars’ most recent outing, a 74-62 loss at SMU on Dec. 21. Reed was a key figure during Southern’s winning streak, providing steady backcourt production. For Prairie View, containing Reed and finding secondary scoring behind Schultz will be critical. Jacque Giron (18 points vs. Texas A&M) and Alana Shields (11 points, 5 assists) are coming off strong individual games. Southern will aim to leverage its home court and build on its defensive effort that held Arizona to 57 points earlier this month. This game marks the conference opener for both programs. Southern’s next game is at home against Texas Southern on Jan. 3, while Prairie View travels to face Grambling the same day. Tip-off is scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CST.