Toyota Center

My visit to Toyota Center came on March 14, 2015, for championship Saturday at the SWAC Basketball Tournament in Houston. The home of the Rockets hosted both title games that day, with the women’s championship in the afternoon and the men’s championship that evening.

In the women’s final, Alabama State faced Southern with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line, and the Lady Hornets took control and won 73-55. It was a strange year for the women’s bracket. Regular-season champion Texas Southern withdrew from the tournament after eight players were suspended following a brawl with Southern at the end of the season, but Alabama State made the most of its opening and punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

The men’s final matched top-seeded Texas Southern against third-seeded Southern. Both teams were in the building with a lot on the line. Southern was ineligible for the NCAA Tournament that season, so Texas Southern was playing for the automatic bid. My Alabama State Hornets had also been ineligible for the postseason, and they lost to Southern in the semifinals.

It came down to the end. Texas Southern held on to beat Southern 62-58 for its sixth SWAC Tournament title, and Madarious Gibbs was named the tournament’s MVP.

The highlight of my day came off the court. I got the chance to meet the late Hall of Famer Moses Malone, the three-time NBA MVP who led the Philadelphia 76ers to the 1983 championship and spent some of his best years with the Houston Rockets. He passed away that September, which makes this photo one I will always treasure.