On Wednesday night, the Southern Jaguars likely made alum Avery Johnson proud in their First Four matchup against the UC San Diego Tritons.
After Southern punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament, Johnson — who won an NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs in 1999 — congratulated the team on his X account and challenged them to make it to the Sweet 16.
While the Jaguars aren’t expected to make it that far, at least they picked up their first NCAA Tournament win in women’s basketball in school history.
Southern beat UC San Diego 68-56 at Pauley Pavillion in Los Angeles. The Jaguars controlled most of the game. At halftime, they led 40-20. They also outrebounded the Tritons 36-29 and shot 49% from the field.
Jaguars junior guard Soniyah Reed turned in one of her best games of the season. She scored a season-high 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
Southern head coach Carlos Funchess probably isn’t surprised his squad made school history. He noticed they seemed locked in before the start of the season.
“The team returned to campus on June 3 with two goals: to win a regular-season championship and make it to the NCAA Tournament,” Funchess said in a story published by HBCU Sports.com on Wednesday. “They sacrificed their entire summer to start working out and condition in preparation for the upcoming season. They knew with the addition of nine players this would be critical to our success, so they we’re all-in.”
The No. 16 seed Jaguars will face No. 1 seed UCLA in the round of 64 on Friday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN. Expect them to be a considerable underdog. As of Wednesday, FanDuel Sportsbook gives the Bruins the third-best odds (+600) to win the national championship.
