BATON ROUGE, La. | The Grambling State University women's basketball team suffered its first Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) loss on Saturday afternoon as the Lady Tigers fell, 63-44, to Southern at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
 
The Lady Tigers (5-9 overall, 2-1 SWAC), who were 0-for-16 from behind the 3-point line, were outscored in every quarter and trailed 19-13 after the first and 31-23 at the half. Southern (3-9, 2-1) used a 20-12 run in the third to take a 51-35 advantage into the final quarter.
 
Shakyla Hill followed up her quadruple-double on Wednesday with a double-double on Saturday. She finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds, seven steals and two assists. Monisha Neal added 10 points and three rebounds.
 
Briana Green paced Southern with a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards, with five steals. Skylar O'Bear tallied 13 points and five rebounds. Courtney Parsons registered 10 points and five boards.
 
Turning Point
Grambling State jumped out to a 9-6 advantage after a Kailyn Gideon layup with 6:44 left in the opening quarter, but the Lady Jaguars answered and took a 10-9 lead after a bucket by Courtney Parsons with 4:32 remaining.
 
The Lady Tigers tied the game at 12 with a minute left in the first, but Southern used a 16-3 run over the next four minutes to take a 28-15 advantage with 7:03 remaining in the second quarter.
 
Grambling State battled back and cut the deficit to 28-21 after a pair of free throws by Monisha Neal with 4:45 left in the first half. Southern stretched the lead to 31-21 after a Briana Green free throw with 3:32 remaining, but the Lady Tigers were able to trim the margin to 31-23 before halftime on two free throws by Neal.
 
The Lady Tigers opened the second half with a pair of buckets and cut the deficit to 31-27 after a Shakyla Hill layup with 8:21 left in the third, but the Lady Jaguars answered and pushed the advantage to 40-29 after a 3-pointer by Samantha Duncan with 6:27 remaining.
 
Grambling State trimmed the margin to 42-33 after a Hill jumper with 3:42 left in the period, but again Southern answered and extended the advantage to 51-35 on a Alyric Scott jumper right before the end of the third quarter.
 
The Lady Tigers could never recover from the huge deficit in dropping their first SWAC game of the season.
 
Inside The Numbers
* Grambling State shot 29.6 percent (16-of-54) from the floor and 66.7 percent (12-of-18) from the free-throw line.
* Southern was 19-of-62 (30.6 percent) shooting and 21-of-32 (65.6 percent) from the charity stripe.
* The Lady Tigers finished with 41 rebounds, with 31 coming off the defensive glass.
* The Lady Jaguars registered 40 rebounds, including 12 coming off the offensive glass.
 
News & Notes
* Shakyla Hill still has not come down after her quadruple double on Wednesday as she has heard from NBA superstars James Harden (Houston Rocket), Chris Paul (Houston Rockets) and LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers).
* Shakyla Hill came into the game ranked second in the country and first in the SWAC in steals and steals per game.
* Grambling State opened the New Year with back-to-back wins over Alabama A&M and Alabama State.
* The Lady Tigers dropped the first matchup last season to Southern, but picked up two victories over the Lady Jaguars, including a 65-56 win in the SWAC semifinals.
 
Up Next
Grambling State will conclude the short two-game road swing on Monday night against Alcorn State. Tip-off from Lorman, Miss., is set for 5:30 p.m.
 
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