SWAC History: Six of the greatest women’s basketball players in conference history

This article is one in a series of features produced in partnership with the Southwestern Athletic Conference, exploring the history of the SWAC from its founding in 1920 to the present day. The series will run during the months of April and May.

Before we start, let’s be clear about something. This is not a definitive list. The SWAC has produced more great women’s basketball players than one article can hold, and to claim otherwise would be doing a disservice to a conference whose women’s basketball history has been underreported for decades.

What you will find here are six players whose accomplishments were so extraordinary that leaving them out of any serious conversation about greatness in this conference simply is not an option.

Patricia Hoskins — Mississippi Valley State

There is no version of this list that does not begin and end with Patricia Hoskins. She is, statistically speaking, the greatest scorer per game in the history of NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Not one of the greatest. The greatest. And she did it at Mississippi Valley State University.

Hoskins grew up in Greenville, Mississippi, and chose to stay close to home, signing with MVSU, just 43 miles down the road, when over 70 schools were recruiting her. She arrived at a program that had just finished the previous season, 9-18. By her sophomore year, she had turned it into a 21-7 team and led the Lady Devilettes to their first-ever SWAC tournament championship.

Over four seasons, Hoskins averaged 28.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per game for her career. Both numbers are among the best in Division I history at any position. In her senior season alone, she averaged 33.6 points per game — a single-season record that still stands. Within a two-week stretch that same year, she scored 55 points against Southern and 55 points against Alabama State.

She is the only player in Division I history to have multiple games in the all-time top 15 for single-game scoring.

She was a four-time SWAC Player of the Year, her number 42 was retired, and she finished with 3,122 career points, which was the Division I record at the time.

Neacole Hall — Alabama State

If you want to understand how dominant Neacole Hall was as a point guard for the Alabama State Lady Hornets, start with this number: 10.35 assists per game for her career. That is the highest assists-per-game average in the history of NCAA Division I women’s basketball. And she did it in three seasons.

Hall averaged more assists per game than Suzie McConnell of Penn State, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest distributors in the history of the sport. She won the Division I assists title in back-to-back seasons in 1988 and 1989, and holds the all-time SWAC record for a single-game assists performance.

What made Hall remarkable was not just the numbers. It was the understanding of the game that those numbers reflected. A player who averages over 10 assists per game over the course of a college career is not just distributing the ball. She is running an offense, reading defenses, and elevating everyone around her to a level that most players at any program never reach.

At a moment in the late 1980s when the SWAC was quietly producing some of the most statistically dominant women’s basketball players in the country, Hall was the engine that made Alabama State go. She was, and remains, one of the most gifted playmakers to ever play in the conference.

Shakyla Hill — Grambling State

On January 3, 2018, Shakyla Hill of Grambling State made history that no one in the sport had made in nearly a quarter century. She recorded a quadruple-double (15 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals) in a win over Alabama State. She was only the fifth player in Division I history, men’s or women’s, to accomplish the feat, and the first woman to do it since 1994.

Hill almost did not play college basketball at all. She had wanted to be a lawyer. Grambling State gave her the only Division I scholarship offer she received coming out of high school, and she took it. Over the next four years, she turned that opportunity into one of the most decorated careers in SWAC women’s basketball history.

Then she did it again. Later that same season, Hill recorded her second career quadruple-double (21 points, 16 rebounds, 13 assists, and 10 steals) against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.  She became the only player in Division I history, men’s or women’s, to record multiple quadruple-doubles in a career. According to ESPN Stats and Information at the time, she had more career quadruple-doubles than all men’s Division I players combined.

By the time Hill graduated in 2019, she had compiled 2,073 career points, 934 rebounds, 623 assists, and 493 steals. Her steals are the most in SWAC history. She won the SWAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in her final season, was named to three All-SWAC first teams, and won the SWAC Tournament MVP in 2018.

Jaclyn Winfield — Southern University

Jaclyn Winfield arrived at Southern University and made an immediate statement. As a freshman, she earned SWAC Newcomer of the Year honors and a spot on the All-SWAC First Team. Over the next four years, she would turn Southern into a program that had never existed before she got there.

Her senior season was the defining chapter. Winfield set the Southern University single-season scoring record with 666 points, averaging 21.5 points per game. She earned All-SWAC First Team honors for the second consecutive year, was voted SWAC Tournament MVP, and was named the SWAC Women’s Player of the Year.

Southern finished with a program-record 26 wins, claimed both the SWAC regular season and tournament titles, and earned the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. None of it happens without her.

The Utah Starzz concluded the 2002 WNBA Draft by taking Winfield in the fourth round, making her the first player ever drafted out of the SWAC into the WNBA. She came within a final roster cut of making it, and was waived at the end of training camp.

Twenty years passed before the SWAC sent another woman to the WNBA draft.

Ameshya Williams-Holliday — Jackson State

The Ameshya Williams-Holliday story is one of the most remarkable in SWAC women’s basketball history — and it almost did not happen at all.

Williams-Holiday began her college career at Mississippi State, walked away from the game in 2017, became a mother, rebuilt her life, and then enrolled at Jackson State in 2019 under coach Tomekia Reed for one more chance.

What she built over the next three seasons belongs in the record books. She averaged 16.1 points and 11.2 rebounds per game, recorded 52 double-doubles, and was a three-time SWAC Defensive Player of the Year and three-time first-team All-SWAC selection. In her final season, she led the conference in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, and blocked shots.

On top of that, she won both the Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Jackson State went 48-3 in SWAC play during her three seasons, winning three straight regular season titles and two straight conference tournament championships.

In April 2022, the Indiana Fever selected her 25th overall in the WNBA Draft, making her the first HBCU player drafted in the league in 20 years. Williams-Holliday was waived before playing a regular-season game. But the door she kicked open, for herself, for HBCU women’s basketball, and for every player who came after her, has not closed since.

Angel Jackson — Jackson State

If Ameshya Williams-Holliday kicked the door open, Angel Jackson walked through it and made sure it stayed that way.

Jackson was a McDonald’s All-American coming out of Salesian High School in Richmond, California. After playing at USC for three seasons, she transferred to Jackson State.

At Jackson State, Jackson became one of the most dominant defensive forces in the conference. She was a 6-foot-6 center with a defensive awareness and motor that translated directly into wins.

She averaged 9.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in her two seasons with the Lady Tigers, posted 171 blocked shots in 64 games, and was named the SWAC Defensive Player of the Year in both of her seasons in Jackson. She led Jackson State to back-to-back SWAC tournament championships and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

In 2024, the Las Vegas Aces selected Jackson 36th overall in the WNBA Draft, making her just the second HBCU player drafted in 20 years. She was waived before the regular season, played briefly in Italy, and went on to become the first HBCU player to compete in Athletes Unlimited, a professional women’s basketball league.