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GARLAND, Texas - She couldn't contain herself. As soon as the final buzzer sounded and the ball took its last bounce, rolling to a stop, Prairie View A&M junior forward
Latia Williams collapsed on the hardwood and started pounding her fists in a moment of pure exitement.
Williams didn't want her season to end without getting a chance to repeat as a SWAC Tournament Champion. So she took the game into her own hands in the closing moments of the Lady Panthers' 58-55 win over top-seeded Mississippi Valley State, which propelled them to the SWAC Tournament Championship game on Saturday.
She scored 10 of her team's final 14 points and finished with a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds.
"I'm the oldest player on the team," Williams said. "So I call myself 'Momma'. I told them to 'get on my back and Momma is going to bring us home.'"
Prairie View A&M trailed 55-52 with 1:28 left in the game following a layup by the Devilettes' Alia Frank. Williams scored on a driving layup with 1:07 left to cut her team's deficit to 55-54. She then came away with a momentous block with 35 seconds remaining. Her teammate,
Michaela Burton, came down with the rebound to give her team a shot at taking the lead.
Williams struck again. Her layup with 29 seconds left gave the Lady Panthers a 56-55 lead. She drained a couple of free throws with 10 seconds on the clock to give Prairie View the 58-55 lead. The Devilettes had two chances to tie the game, but Lenisa Stallings and Frank missed three pointers on their final offensive possession as PV took down top-seeded and 2011-12 SWAC Regular Season Champions Mississippi Valley.
JaQuandria Williams hit a big three with 7:42 left in the game to give her team a 41-36 lead. She took the pass from
Latia Williams and pulled up at the corner to drain the shot. However, the Devilettes stormed back and took a 47-46 lead after Stallings made a three with 4:41 left.
From that point, there were seven lead changes until the end of the game.
The Lady Panthers held a 23-19 lead over Mississippi Valley State at the half thanks to nine-point, six-rebound performance by
Latia Williams.
Larissa Scott, on a mission to record her fourth-consecutive double-double had six points and four rebounds at the half. Scott ended the game with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Prairie View A&M held the Devilettes to 25.9 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes and also forced them into 10 turnovers. The Lady Panthers had recorded five steals, two of which came from
LaReahn Washington. She finished with 13 points, three steals and two steals.
The Lady Panthers will play in their second-consecutive SWAC Tournament game Saturday at 5 p.m. versus Alcorn State University. Prairie View A&M will try to improve its SWAC Tournament win streak to six games on a nationally-televised contest to be aired on ESPNU.
Tickets for Saturday's showdown are available at
www.SWACHOOPS.org with the contest broadcast live on KPVU 91.3 FM by Leonard Moon at 4:45 p.m.