ALCORN STATE, Miss. – Trant Simpson nailed the game-winning basket with three-tenths of a second remaining in overtime which gave the Prairie View A&M Panthers a 68-66 overtime win over Alcorn State in the team's SWAC opener on Monday night at the Whitney Center.
The Panthers came out flat to begin the game as ASU jumped out to an 11-4 margin at the 11:47 mark. After the sluggish start, Prairie View regrouped offensively and claimed its first lead of the night two minutes later as senior post Brandon Webb recorded a layup for a 14-13 advantage. From that point, Prairie View took control of the half and bumped its lead to as much as eight (29-21) before ASU scored the final three points of the half for a 29-24 halftime margin.
Both teams went back-and-forth to open the second half as they traded leads three times in addition to two ties within the first five minutes. Tied at 41-all, Alcorn State's Marquiz Baker nailed a three-pointer which kickstarted a 12-3 ASU run and a 53-44 advantage with 9:59 left in regulation. With momentum firmly in ASU's corner, Brandon Webb went to work down low and scored two big baskets which trimmed Prairie View's deficit to 53-48 at the 7:23 mark. Alcorn State went up by eight after three points from Ian Francis but a four-point play from Trant Simpson closed the gap to 56-52 several possessions later.
Down 58-52 with 5:43 left, Prairie View received huge baskets from redshirt freshman Cortney Bell and junior Michael Griffin to close within two at 58-56 as the clock read 2:51. A basket by Baker upped ASU's margin to four points several seconds later but Prairie View's Tim Meadows picked the perfect time to score his first points of the night after connecting on a layup with 2:12 left. ASU's Kendrick McDonald nailed two free throws for a four-point cushion but Meadows once again came up big as the Fort Worth, Texas native hit an off-balanced jumper in the paint that trimmed PV's deficit to 62-60 with only 1:15 left. Alcorn State had several chances to make it a two-possession game from that point but came up short as they could only manage to lead by three (63-60) with 12 ticks remaining.
After a 30-second timeout by the Panthers, the team ran the clock down to two seconds and came up big as senior Duwan Kornegay took a feed from Simpson and nailed an NBA-length three-pointer to send the game into overtime as the score was knotted at 63.
In overtime, ASU went up 66-63 before a free throw by Simpson cut Prairie View's deficit to two points with 2:31 left. Prairie View's defense stiffened from that point as ASU misfired on its next three attempts. With 31 ticks remaining, Simpson drove in the lane and missed a layup attempt but sophomore Michael Webb came up huge as he tied the contest at 66 after scoring his first points of the night off a putback. On the following possession, Alcorn State threw the ball away on the inbounds pass and Prairie View worked the clock down to one second before Simpson hit the game-winning shot in the paint.
Simpson led the way with 22 points while Brandon Webb tallied 14 points and three blocks. The Panthers return to action on Thursday as they'll face Southern in Baton Rouge, La. beginning at 7:30 p.m.
