QUEENS, N.Y. - Prairie View A&M could not hold on to a first-half lead as they suffered a 66-50 loss to St. John's on Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena.

The Lady Panthers received a breakout performance from junior guard Kiara Etienne, who scored a career-high 27 points in an opening-round loss in the St. John's Chartwell's Holiday Classic.

Prairie View A&M jumped out to an early 15-4 lead over St. John's. Etienne finished on a fast-break layup and hit three, three-pointers to start the game. Her shot from downtown with 15:23 left gave the Lady Panthers an 11-point advantage. 

The Lady Panthers took a 30-27 lead into the locker room at halftime. Prairie View capitalized off of the hot shooting of Etienne, who put up 17 first-half points on St. John's including a 3-for-3 performance from downtown. She also had two steals during the first 20 minutes, scoring off of both turnovers.

St. John's started the second half off on a 12-0 run, catching the Lady Panthers off-guard and taking a 39-30 lead in the process. St. John's jumped out in front by hitting six of its first eight shots from the field.

Riding the hot hand of speedy guard Eugenia McPherson, who had a team-high 20 points, St. John's (6-5) eventually upped its lead to as much as 20 points in the second half en route to the win.

The Lady Panthers (2-7) will play Louisiana Tech tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. in the consolation round of the tournament.