SWAC WOMEN
Prairie View A&M 74, Southern 49

Prairie View (23-10) broke from a two-point (37-35) halftime lead to outscore Southern 37-14 over the final 20 minutes in claiming the SWAC Tournament title in Birmingham.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke's team turned up the defensive pressure limiting the Lady Jags to 17% shooting in the second half.

"We came out with a different focus defensively," Cooper-Dyke said. "I tell our players that we have to focus on our game and we were much more solid defensively. We were able to get out and get some easy baskets off our defense."

Junior tournament MVP Gaati Werema tallied game highs of 29 points and 16 rebounds and was aided by 18 points from Candice Thomas and 15 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists from point guard Dominique Smith.

"What can I say about her," said PVAMU head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of Werema, who went down in last year's tourney with a torn ACL. "She is a great, great player and she deserves all of the success she's earned. She led us back to here and to this win."

Deidra Jackson had 19 to lead Southern (17-13).

SWAC MEN
Alabama State 65, Jackson State 58

Tournament MVP Andrew Hayles scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the second half to spur Alabama State (22-9) from a 25-23 halftime deficit to the victory over Jackson State for the SWAC title.

Hayles, last year's SWAC player of the year, threw in three critical second-half 3-pointers. The first, with 13:34 to play, broke a 34-all tie. After a basket by Hornets' super-sub Roland Fitch, the next 3 put ASU up 8, at 42-34 at the 11:49 mark. The teams traded baskets before Hayles threw in his third 3, this one from NBA range, for a 47-36 lead. JSU got as close as 49-46 at the 5:22 mark before the Hornets pulled away and made free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.

Wesley Jones added 14 points and Fitch finished with 12. Grant Maxey had 15 while Darrin Griffin and Garrison Johnson had 12 to lead JSU (18-15).

MEAC WOMEN
North Carolina A&M 76, Hampton 54

Senior tournament MVP Amber Bland had a team-high 18 points, 16 in a decisive first half, and fellow senior and MEAC scoring leader Brittanie Taylor-James tallied 17, 14 of hers in the second half, to lead top seed North Carolina A&T (26-6) to the win over sixth-seeded Hampton in the championship game of the MEAC Women's Tournament Saturday afternoon.

Behind Bland's 16 first-half points, including four 3-pointers, and another 11 points from reserve center Lamona Smalley, the Lady Aggies jumped out to a 37-23 halftime lead. With Taylor-James catching fire in the second half, the lead reached 21 points several times in the second half, never dipping below 16.

The Lady Aggies (26-6) thus claim their first tourney championship since 1994, setting a school record for wins in a season for the second year in a row, and get the first title for fourth-year head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs.

MEAC MEN
Morgan State 83, Norfolk State 69

Top seeded Morgan State, playing under former blacklilsted head coach Todd Bozeman, ended a 32-year title drought with a the win over Norfolk State in the championship game Saturday night.

Bozeman, the former Cal Berkeley coach who was subjected to a show-cause ban by the NCAA that kept him out of the game for ten years, guided the Bears, once the doormat of the conference, to their first title in over three decades and first NCAA bid in just his third year on the job.

"It's been a long road back," said Bozeman, who coached Jason Kidd and Sharief Abdur-Raheem and took Cal to the Sweet 16 in the mid '90s before the scandal put him on the coaching sidelines.

Bozeman, whose dad passed while he was out of coaching, cried tears of joy on the court after the victory, remembering his father and his long road back. At the postgame press conference he was in a more upbeat mood, quoting the rapper JayZ and his song entitled "Show Me What You Got" saying, "Sorry, I'm b-a-a-a-ck."

First-team all-MEAC guard and tournament MVP Reggie Holmes had a team-high 20 points and led four teammates in double figures as the Bears (23-11) pulled away to the victory over Norfolk State (16-16). Point guard Jermaine "Itchy" Bolden had 18, senior forward Marquis Kately added 16 and freshman power forward Kevin Thompson came thru with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. The quartet was more than enough to offset the Norfolk State scoring duo of Michael Deloach and Corey Lyons who were the only Spartans in double figures with 30 and 14 points respectively.

© 2009 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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