LAKE CHARLES, La. – The Southland Conference regular season champion Southeastern Louisiana University women's basketball team will face fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce in the semifinals of the Jersey Mike's 2023 Southland Conference Women's Basketball Championships presented by LouisianaTravel.com Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the Legacy Center on the McNeese campus.
 
Wednesday's game will be televised on ESPN+ and the winner will advance to Thursday's championship game, scheduled for 4 p.m. on ESPNU. Should Southeastern advance to the title game for the second straight season, the game will also be broadcast on The Boss 103.7 FM/1400 AM.
 
The winner of the tournament receives the Southland Conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Should SLU fail to cut the nets down in Lake Charles, Southeastern will receive a berth into the WNIT by virtue of being the regular season champions.
 
Southland Conference Coach of the year Ayla Guzzardo and SLU (19-9) earned a bye into the semifinals due to being the top seed in the league tournament. Texas A&M-Commerce (14-18) opened the tournament with a 79-66 victory over Northwestern State in the first round Monday and held off a late UIW rally for a 65-62 second-round win.
 
Southeastern has won eight of its last nine contests heading into the tournament. SLU closed out the regular season Wednesday with a 66-45 victory over HCU.
 
A pair of All-Southland Conference performers lead Southeastern in scoring. Hailey Giaratano, who was named to the All-SLC team for the third straight season, leads SLU with 12.4 points per game, while first team all-conference guard Alexius Horne is right behind her with a 12.3 per game scoring average.
 
Taylor Bell (8.1 ppg), Cierria Cunningham (7.4 ppg) and Jen Pierre (7.3 ppg) round out the top scorers for a Southeastern squad that is averaging 62.7 points per contest. Pierre is sixth in the Southland with 2.9 assists per game.
On the glass, Natalie Kelly (8.9 rpg) and Chrissy Brown (6.8 rpg) represent two of the top rebounders in the Southland Conference. Kelly ranks second in the Southland and Brown joins her in the top 10 at eighth.
 
Southeastern features the top scoring defense in the Southland, ranking 12^th in Division I with 54.3 points per game allowed, behind SLC All-Defensive performers Kelly and Pierre. Kelly leads the Southland and ranks 15^th nationally with 2.3 blocked shots per game, while Pierre has a team-high 43 steals.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce's top active scorers are DesiRay Kernal (12.4 ppg) and Laila Lawrence (12.3 ppg) Kernal leads the team with 2.3 assists per game, while Lawrence's 7.3 rebounds per outing pace the squad. Kernal represented AMC on the All-SLC team as a second team selection.
 
Southeastern won both meetings with the SLC's other Lions, who are in their first season a Southland member, in the 2022-23 regular season. SLU took a defensive struggle, 46-42, in the first meeting in Hammond Jan. 21. Cunningham led three Southeastern players in double figures with 14 points, while Kernal led all players with 18 points to pace AMC.
 
SLU took a 66-55 victory over AMC in Commerce, Texas Feb. 18. Giaratano led a balanced Southeastern attack with a game-high 15 points, while Lawrence led the host Lions with a double-double effort of 11 points and 14 rebounds.
 
Southeastern will be making its 13th all-time appearance in the Southland Conference Tournament, where they have a 3-11 all-time record. The Lady Lions defeated UNO in the quarterfinals and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the semifinals last season, before ultimately dropping the championship game to UIW.
 
Jersey Mike's 2023 Southland Conference Women's Basketball Championships presented by LouisianaTravel.com
March 6-9, 2023 | Legacy Center | Lake Charles, Louisiana
 
First Round – Monday, March 6
Game 1 – No. 5 Texas A&M-Commerce 79, No. 8 Northwestern State 66
Game 2 – No. 6 McNeese 87, No. 7 New Orleans 82 (OT)
 
Quarterfinals – Tuesday, March 7
Game 3 – Texas A&M-Commerce 63, No. 4 UIW 62
Game 4 – No. 3 Lamar 80, McNeese 75 (OT)
 
Semifinals – Wednesday, March 8
Game 5 – No. 1 Southeastern vs. Texas A&M-Commerce | 11 a.m. (ESPN+)
Game 6 – No. 2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. Lamar | 1:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Finals – Thursday, March 9
Game 7 – Semifinal winners, 4 p.m. (ESPNU)
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Women's Basketball, follow @LionUpWBB on Twitter, like /SoutheasternWBB on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.

CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics has instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events, effective with the start of football season. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit www.LionSports.net/clear.