Lady Panthers Nearly Pull Off Road Upset

AMES, Ia. – The Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers came close to pulling off a major upset as they dropped their non-conference finale by a margin of 58-50 to No. 20 Iowa State on Thursday night in the finale of the annual Iowa State Cyclone Challenge at Hilton Coliseum.

Prairie View was held scoreless for the first three minutes of the contest until senior guard Dominique Smith broke the scoring drought with a jumper at the 16:56 mark for a 6-2 deficit. The Lady Panthers hung around from that point and trailed 11-7 with 13:40 remaining but Big 12 Conference member Iowa State broke the game open with a 21-5 run that saw their lead increase to 32-12 with 3:10 left in the half. The Lady Panthers managed to regroup after ISU's run and outscored ISU 8-4 over the final 3:10 for a 36-20 halftime deficit.

Trailing by 16 points at the start of the second half, Prairie View began to chip away at ISU's lead as freshman guard Siarra Soliz scored seven of the team's 10 points in the first nine minutes. ISU's lead was cut to single digits as Smith nailed a jumper at the 11:08 mark for a 42-33 deficit.

ISU bumped its advantage back to 13 nearly a minute later but Prairie View continued to fight thanks to the quartet of Smith, Soliz, senior Whitney Williams and sophomore Sharde Henry. The quartet fueled a 14-3 surge which saw Prairie View draw to within 49-47 with 5:42 remaining on a jumper from Smith. ISU went back up by four (51-47) several seconds later on two free throws from Chassidy Coles and held on to its lead over the next three minutes as the score remained unchanged.

The Lady Panthers came within one point of earning their first lead of the contest with 2:18 to go in the game as redshirt sophomore Latia Williams cut the margin to 51-50 after connecting on a huge trey from behind the arc. ISU answered with a basket (53-50) on its following possession which led to a 30-second timeout by Prairie View. Unfortunately, Prairie View suffered a key turnover immediately following the timeout which turned into a three-point play and a 56-50 lead for ISU with 1:05 left. The Lady Panthers had several opportunities to narrow its deficit on the next possession but came up empty-handed as ISU's Kelsey Bolte iced the game with two free throws.

Smith received All-Tournament recognition after scoring a game-high 23 points, while adding two rebounds and one steal. Soliz, who was named SWAC Newcomer of the Week this past week, followed with 13 points, three steals and a rebound.

The Lady Panthers will open up conference play on Tuesday, Jan. 4 as they travel to Alcorn State, Miss. for a match-up at Alcorn State. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted live on KPVU 91.3 FM.

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