SOUTHERN READY FOR SWAC PLAY AFTER BrUTAL NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE :: Rob Spivery hopes schedule toughens Jags for SWAC play

Dec. 31, 2005

After playing one of the more brutal pre-conference schedules in the nation, The Southern Jaguars (1-9) look forward to finally reaching SWAC play as they take the Texas "Two-Step", and travel to Houston to take on the Panthers of Prairie View A&M Monday night, January 2nd, at 7:30 pm on the Prairie View A&M campus.

The Southern Jaguars are coming off of another tough loss at a high-caliber team's arena. This time a 73-56 defeat at Xavier (OH) on Thursday. Chris Alexander paced the Jaguars in scoring for the ninth straight game with 16 points. But after leading for 13 minutes in the first half Southern ended up on the wrong end of a 19-2 second-half run as the Musketeers pulled ahead for good.

Senior post players Peter Cipriano and Jerrid Campbell combined for 18 points for Southern. Junior guard Deforrest Riley-Smith, a Cincinnati native and Xavier transfer, added eight points in his hometown return.

The defeat brought an end to a brutal non-conference schedule for the Jaguars, who has played only one home game this season. The Jags will play at Prairie View A&M on Monday night, and Texas Southern on Wednesday night, before coming home to face Grambling State on Friday Janaury 6th 8:00 pm. The SU-GSU matchup will be televised "Live" on ESPNU.