Women’s Basketball

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams hosted McNeese on Thursday and Houston Baptist on Saturday for two Southland Conference clashes. 

Women’s hoops defeated McNeese 78-68 in a back and forth affair. The Lady Lions led 36-35 at the half after being up by nine with under four minutes to play in the second quarter. 

The Cowgirls’ end-of-half run carried into the third quarter as they went on top 55-54 after three periods of play. Known for the three-ball, McNeese hit two triples in a row inside the first 30 seconds to start the fourth, taking a 61-54 advantage and their largest lead of the game.

From that point forward, SLU outscored MSU 24-7 en route to a ten-point victory. Morgan Carrier was the catalyst for the comeback, scoring 19 points and five three-pointers. 

Morgan Davis also had a big night, scoring 16 points while adding seven rebounds. Breonca Ducksworth and Alexius Horne added 11 and 10 points respectively, putting the ladies with four scorers in double digits. 

After extending the start to conference play at 8-0 on Thursday, the green and gold stumbled, dropping their Saturday matchup to Houston Baptist 51-40. 

The offense struggled, shooting 25% from the field while scoring the second fewest points all season. The Lady Lions trailed the entire game and were ultimately done in by a lackluster first half, being outscored 25-11 going into the break. 

SLU woke up in the second half, cutting the Lady Huskies’ lead to one in the early stages of the fourth quarter after a Hailey Giaratano three-ball. But, it was too little, too late; the first conference loss dropped Southeastern to 8-1 in the Southland. 

Men’s Basketball

Men’s hoops fared better beating both McNeese and Houston Baptist to go 2-0 on the week. The Lions came from behind to beat the Cowboys 91-86 after trailing 40-34 at halftime. 

The big three – Gus Okafor, Keon Clergeot and Jalyn Hinton – showed up majorly, scoring a combined 60 points. Clergeot and Hinton scored 18 points apiece while Okafor went for 24 adding nine rebounds to his stellar night. 

Joe Kasperzyk provided a spark off the bench as he finished with 15 points in the win. 

The Lions used another second-half comeback to fuel their victory against Houston Baptist on Saturday, defeating the Huskies 89-84 despite a 46-38 halftime deficit. 

This time it was the Keon Clergeot show as the senior guard dropped 28 points just one shy of his season-high of 29 scored against Incarnate Word two weeks earlier. 

Jalyn Hinton continued his fine season recording another double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Gus Okafor finished with 12 points contributing to the win. 

Next up for the men’s and women’s basketball teams is a road trip to Texas where they will take on Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Thursday, Feb. 17 and Incarnate Word on Saturday, Feb. 19.

Softball

SLU softball went a perfect 3-0 on the weekend hosting Southeast Missouri twice on Friday and Saturday and Alabama A&M Saturday evening in the Lion Classic I to open its season. 

In the first matchup with the Lady Redhawks, Southeastern prevailed 6-2 as Heather Zumo picked up the win on the mound. Zumo went 4.2 innings allowing two runs on three hits while striking out three. 

MC Comeaux (1.1 innings pitched) and Ellie Dubois (one inning pitched) were in relief both giving up zero runs to preserve the victory. Freshman shortstop Maddie Watson led the Lady Lions at the plate going 2-3 with two singles and an RBI.

Lindsey Rizzo added a hit and two runs while Lexi Johnson scored three times. 

The second game against SEMO was much closer with SLU winning 6-5. After a scoreless first inning, the Lady Redhawks put up a four spot in the top of the second to jump out to a sizable lead.

However, the Lady Lions roared back, scoring six unanswered runs throughout the rest of the game taking a 6-4 lead. Southeast Missouri managed to scrape across a run in the top of the last inning to make it 6-5 but left the tying run on second with a fly-out to end the game. 

Zumo yet again came out with the win, pitching 5.1 innings, allowing just one run and recording six strikeouts. Zumo came in relief of Comeaux with two outs in the second inning after already trailing 4-0.

Lexi Johnson led all batters, going 3-3 with two solo home runs and a triple. Maddie Watson went 2-3 with an RBI bunt single and a solo shot of her own. Cam Goodman had two bunt singles while swiping two bags. 

In the final game of the tournament, SLU rolled to a 12-5 victory over Alabama A&M. The Lady Lions once again fell behind 4-0 this time in the top of the first but came back with a vengeance scoring 12 of the games final 13 runs.  

MC Comeaux avenged her rocky start in the previous game, pitching three scoreless innings (fourth, fifth and sixth) without giving up a single hit and recorded four strikeouts as she was credited with the win. 

Four players for Southeastern recorded multiple hits in Aeriyl Mass, Madison Rayner, Madisen Blackford and Cam Goodman. 

Mass went 2-5 with two singles, two runs and one stolen base. Rayner was 2-3 with a single and a double, scoring two runs herself while also batting in two. 

Blackford went 3-4 with a single and two doubles. She scored two runs and hit in three. Goodman closed out the top performers going 3-4 with three singles, two runs and three stolen bases.

Next up for the softball squad is the Troy Cox Invitational tournament in New Mexico which will be played Feb. 18-20. 

Tennis

The tennis team dropped both matches on the weekend in Mobile to South Alabama and Alabama State by the same score of 4-0, as multiple starters were out due to injury.

On Tuesday, Feb. 15, Southeastern hosted Alcorn State at home, where the Lady Braves held off the Lady Lions 4-3. Despite the overall loss, Putri Insani, Polina Paunova and Sonya Kanarskaya each picked up their first singles wins of the spring.

Next up for tennis is a home match on Saturday, Feb. 19 against Lamar University, where the Lady Lions will have a chance to secure their first victory of the season.

Track and Field

SLU’s track and field team had an impressive outing in Aimes at the Iowa State Classic (Feb. 11-12) against the likes of Power Five opposition Iowa State, TCU, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio State as well as Notre Dame who all participated in various events.

Freshman Katrine Olsen finished second overall in women’s high jump posting 1.69 meters. In men’s high jump, Slavko Stevic stamped Southeastern’s presence on the event, tying for second place with a jump of 2.09 meters. 

Junior Eugene Omalla placed sixth in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 21.93 seconds.

Sophomore Javon-Taye Wiliams came in sixth in the men’s 600-yard run (1:12:21). 

Bradley Makuvire once again impressed this time in the men’s 5000-meter run coming in sixth place with a time of 14:04:06.  

Next on the agenda is a bus ride to Baton Rouge for the LSU Twilight meet on Friday, Feb. 18.