Tougaloo's 59-51 victory ends Nuggets' many streaks
January 23, 2012

Box score

     TOUGALOO, Miss. — Victoria Jones had 13 points and 19 rebounds Monday to lead Tougaloo in a 59-51 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference women's basketball victory against NAIA No. 15 Xavier University of Louisiana.
     The Lady Bulldogs (10-11 overall, 4-2 GCAC) snapped the nine-game win streak of the Gold Nuggets (16-6, 6-1) and beat Xavier for the first time in 14 tries. The most recent Tougaloo victory had been in 2005.
     Also snapped was Xavier's 35-game win streak against GCAC opponents, 30 in the regular season.
     Jones, who recorded her fifth career double-double against Xavier, was one of four Lady Bulldogs in double figures. Kierra Addison scored 11 points, and Brittany Patterson and Tangela Rich had 10 apiece.
     SiMon Franklin scored 16 points for Xavier — her fifth consecutive game in double figures — and Brandi Young scored 10.
     Tougaloo led 27-21 at halftime. Both teams made less than a third of their field-goal attempts — Xavier shot 30 percent, Tougaloo 31.5 — but the Lady Bulldogs dominated at the line, making 21-of-30 free throws to the Nuggets' 9-of-15. Tougaloo outrebounded Xavier 42-33. In the Gold Nuggets' previous seven games they outrebounded each opponent by 10 or more.
     It was the third notable home victory of the season for Tougaloo, which beat NAIA No. 18 Belhaven and NCAA Division I Jackson State in December.
     Xavier's loss and Dillard's 72-70 home victory against Talladega knocked the Nuggets out of first place. Dillard, 6-0 in the GCAC, will visit Xavier at 5 p.m. Saturday in the opening game of the Crosstown Classic doubleheader at The Barn.