Hayes & Co. Begin Second Season With Hornets in Top Three of SWAC Preseason Poll

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Prior to its 53rd season of play in the 2026-27 campaign, the Alabama State University women's basketball team was selected to finish third out of 12 teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), as voted on by the league's coaches and sports information directors and announced Tuesday morning.

The Lady Hornets (17-16, 12-6 SWAC in 2025-26) are coming off a stellar first season under the leadership of head coach Johnetta Hayes. The team had a scorching, mid-January run that helped it claim a strong initial seeding in the SWAC Championship Tournament, where it went on to finish its season in the SWAC Championship game, a stage it once again has its eyes set on this upcoming season.

Headlined by five returning letterwinners, including senior forward Charlese McClendon and guards Ny'Keria Flowers and Caylee Simpson, the Hornets will look to build on a season in which it was second in both team field goal percentage (38.7) and opponent field goal percentage allowed (37.3), two things it can continue to excel at as it looks to rise up and claim its first SWAC Tournament Championship since 2016.

Preceding the Hornets in the rankings are the defending SWAC Champion Southern Jaguars, who claimed ten of the voters' 22 top spots. Second-place Alabama A&M had eight first-place votes, while fifth-place Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3) and sixth-place Grambling State (1) made their way to the tops of at least one voter's ballot. Following Southern, AAMU and the Hornets are Alcorn State and UAPB to round out the top five.

The Lady Hornets will compete in 12 non-conference games, starting with a trip down I-85 to Auburn on November 2 inside Neville Arena. It returns to the Joe L. Reed Dunn-Oliver Acadome for the third non-conference game against the Tornadoes of Talladega College on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 5 p.m.

2026-27 SWAC Women's Basketball Predicted Order of Finish