BOX SCORE
WILSON INTERVIEW
Prairie View A&M women's basketball coach Toyelle Wilson went to her bread and butter to pull out a 61-58 non-conference win over Rice University on Friday night in their season opener at the William Nicks Building.
When everything else failed, the Lady Panthers relied on their defense to close out a team picked to finish second in the Conference USA preseason poll. The Lady Panthers held Rice to five points in the final 3:48 and held the Owls to 1-of-7 shooting from the floor in the final two minutes.
“That's our M.O.” Wilson said. “That's been our M.O. for the last couple of years. We wanted to defend. We wanted to limit them to one shot. No open shots. We wanted to force them into tough shots, get the rebound and run.”
On the other end, the Lady Panthers found a way to score at the right time. Prairie View A&M junior forward Kiara Etienne made a game-changing layup with 1:56 left in the game to cap off a two-minute, 8-0 run which gave the Lady Panthers a 58-53 lead.
Prairie View would hold Rice off for the win, but the Owls gave the Lady Panthers a scare as time came to an end.
Rice guard Megan Shafer had a chance to tie the game up at the foul line with three seconds left, but she only made the second of two free throws to cut Prairie View's lead to 59-58 with three seconds left.
Etienne made both of her shots at the foul line after being fouled with 2.5 seconds left to give the Lady Panthers a 61-58 lead, and Rice missed a Hail Mary shot at the buzzer as Prairie View improved to 1-0. Prairie View outscored Rice 11-5 in the final four minutes.
“I'm living with the growing pains,” Wilson said. “But they (The Lady Panthers) prevailed. They came out with the win as we had some big stops at the end of the game.”
Prairie View had four players score in the double figures. Freshman forward Chelsea Azore had a team-high 14 points, and freshman point guard Jeannette Jackson also added 11 points, including two big second-half three pointers.
Etienne had 13 points and six rebounds, and Latia Williams added 10 points and five rebounds.
Friday's win marked the third win in the series history between Prairie View A&M and Rice. It also marked the team's first season-opening win since 2006 and first over a Conference USA school since 2007.
The Lady Panthers take their show on the road and will play against the Miami Hurricanes at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17 in Miami.
