BATON ROUGE, La. - The Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers (5-8, 1-1 SWAC) fell short in the closing seconds as Southern University (5-7, 2-0 SWAC) won a tight contest by a margin of 46-43 on Thursday evening in the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
The opening half got off to a slow start for the Lady Panthers as they went 0-for-5 from the field while being forced into four early turnovers which kept them from finding their offensive flow. However, the Lady Panthers put forth a solid defensive effort as they held Southern in check by holding them to just seven points midway through the period.
Prairie View got back into the game via a 5-0 run as senior guard Dominique Smith hit two free throws followed by a transition three-pointer from senior Courtney Larsen as the contest was knotted at 7-all with 9:41 to play in the half. Unfortunately, Southern University countered with an 8-2 spurt of its own which pushed the margin to 15-9 at the 7:28 mark.
Down by six, Prairie View A&M turned to sophomore guard Latia Williams as the Riverdale, Ga. native came off the bench for a major spark and put together a string of jump shots en route to a 12-point first half performance that cut SU's advantage to 19-17 with slightly under three minutes remaining. The Lady Panthers earned their first advantage of the evening with under a minute to play as Williams hit an elbow jumper for a 23-22 margin. The Lady Panthers were able to conclude the half on a positive note as sophomore guard Sharde Henry connected on two free throws for a 25-22 halftime margin.
It wouldn't take long for the Jaguars to climb back over the hump as forward Freeda Allen rallied her troops to begin the second stanza. The Jaguars opened with a 4-0 run and claimed a 26-25 advantage with 18:05 to play. The Jaguars would extend their lead to as large as three points after a baseline jumper from Ashley Augerson putting the score at 28-25.
Prairie View would only trail for less than a minute before Robin Jones knocked down a trey with the shot clock running down tying the game once again at 28-28.
In back-and-forth fashion, both sides continued to trade leads as the half witnessed nine lead changes. With 1:16 remaining, Latia Williams gave Prairie View breathing room after knocking down a big shot to give the Lady Panthers a 43-42 lead. SU's Jamie Floyd hit one-of-two free throws to tie the game on the following possession and SU recorded a huge offensive rebound after Floyd's second attempt to regain possession of the game with 52 ticks remaining.
After a 30-second SU timeout at the 38 second mark, Kador misfired on a layup attempt but SU's Freeda Allen picked up the offensive rebound and initiated contact down low which turned into two successful free throw attempts and a 45-43 edge with 25 seconds left.
In an attempt to take the lead, Dominique Smith's three-pointer fell short forcing Prairie View to foul once again with 14 seconds left. PV still had a chance to tie the game as SU went 1-of-2 from the line but Smith's game-tying attempt went wide as SU closed out the game with 11.3 seconds remaining.
Latia Williams led the way for the Lady Panthers scoring 16 points while pulling down seven rebounds. Dominique Smith followed with 11 points while adding four rebounds, one assist and one steal while Robin Jones accounted for 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Lady Panthers return to action on Saturday, Jan. 8 in a highly anticipated match-up against SWAC rival Texas Southern. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. in the William Nicks Building.
