Jim Gazzolo column: Pierre stands tall in SLC
Posted 11:25 am Thursday February 26, 2026
Jalencia Pierre is too short.
She doesn’t get enough points.
She’s not a good shot.
It’s easy to overlook it.
Pierre is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs approximately 98 pounds. Both figures may be a bit exaggerated.
But you can understand how she gets overlooked on the basketball court.
They say the McNeese State point guard simply isn’t a good enough basketball player to be considered Southland Conference Player of the Year. She just doesn’t seem right.
Swill.
That’s just a petty thought, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Pierre is the best defensive player on the league’s best defensive team, one that captured the league’s regular-season title with about 25 percent of the schedule remaining.
That’s dominance.
I understand that it is not a fancy name. Hell, the Cowgirls aren’t a fancy team. They are a brave, dirty, defensive squad that tortures enemies on every inch of the 94-foot floor.
Pierre is the tip of the McNeese sword that bleeds his opponents, slash after slash.
That’s why the two-time, and likely three-time, Southland Defensive Player of the Year winner deserves consideration for the league’s top honor.
Maybe POY honor isn’t about being the most valuable. If that’s the case, simply name the best player from the award and move on. But if it’s supposed to get to the most valuable, or perhaps the most important, then Pierre gets my vote.
If you watch the Cowgirls for any amount of time, you’ll know that it’s Pierre who, despite his flaws (pun intended), is the player who deserves it every day. The senior has a way of playing big in big moments.
To me, that’s what MVPs do. Last Thursday, when the Cowgirls were fighting to hold on to second place Texas-Rio Grande Valley, it was Pierre who scored 12 points in the first half to keep them up by one at halftime.
In the decisive game, she made all eight of her free throws as the Cowgirls held on to win 60-53.
“That kid is tough,” his coach, Ayla Guzzardo, said of Pierre. “He scored 1,000 points; he just does it from his defense.”
Reaching the century mark in points shows that Pierre can score, something that is often overlooked.
“I like to play defense,” Pierre said. “I get my offense from my defense.”
What Pierre does most is win. He is 50-10 over the last two seasons, which is how we should judge a player’s value.
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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com