The Panthers and Cougars were even to start off as senior guard Jourdan DeMuynck scored seven of the first 10 points for Prairie View A&M within the first five-and-a-half minutes en route to a 10-9 lead.

Following the first media timeout, UH began to heat up as Danuel House and Joseph Young nailed back-to-back treys which fueled a 12-10 run that propelled the Cougars to a 19-10 advantage. Junior forward Demondre Chapman stopped the bleeding slightly near the 11-minute mark as his offensive putback gave PV its first score since the 15:20 mark. However, Chapman's basket wasn't enough as UH remained red-hot from behind the arc as they hit two consecutive three-pointers which extended their run to 18-3 and a 25-12 advantage. On the other side of the court, the shots would not fall for the Panthers as they were held scoreless for nearly three minutes until Carl Blair hit two free throws with 8:14 left for a 25-14 deficit.

UH began to cool after the run and PV finally woke up on both ends of the court after the drought. The Panthers found success in the paint and put forth a 9-0 run which brought them to within 25-21 with 5:01 left in the half. A PV foul and a turnover led to four straight points by the Cougars as they led 29-21 thirty seconds later.

With 4:19 remaining, the game came to a halt after a hard UH foul. After taking the officiating crew nearly 10 minutes to review the game footage, UH's Jherrod Stiggers was ejected for leaving the bench which led to Blair nailing 1-of-2 from the free throw line followed by a Chapman basket off an offensive rebound for a 29-24 margin. House connected on his second trey from downtown with 3:47 left to extend UH's lead to 32-24 but the Panthers continued to fight as Montrael Scott hit two free throws along with a Chapman basket off another offensive rebound as they trailed 34-28.

The momentum pendulum began to swing back in favor of UH as the half came to a close. The Cougars outscored the Panthers 12-4 over the final 3:19 to claim a 46-32 halftime advantage.

The Panthers opened the second stanza on a 5-0 surge to creep within nine points (46-37) as DeMuynck scored all five points. UH responded with four consecutive points to up its lead back to double digits and eventually pushed its advantage by as much as 17 (59-42) at the 14:41 mark. However, the Panthers never lost their will to fight as Blair and DeMuynck combined to score 10 points over the next four minutes to draw PV within 66-57 with 10:51 remaining.

UH countered with a 6-0 run from that point to increase its lead back to 15. They led by double digits for the next five minutes until an inspired 15-4 run by the Panthers closed the gap to 76-72 with 1:29 remaining on the clock.

After forcing a UH turnover with 1:05 left, the Panthers were whistled for a turnover on the ensuing possession four seconds later. UH's J.J. Thompson missed a wide-open three-pointer with 29 ticks remaining but the ball was rebounded by TaShawn Thomas. From that point, PV was forced to foul and UH capitalized as they nailed all four of its free throw attempts to seal the win.

DeMuynck led the Panthers with 27 points and five rebounds while Blair followed with 19 points, five rebounds and five assists. Chapman also had a strong performance with 15 points and eight rebounds. Thomas and House led the Cougars with 22 points apiece while Joseph Young tallied 17.

With non-conference play behind them, the Panthers will turn their attention to SWAC play as they'll travel to Alcorn State, Miss. for their league opener at Alcorn State on Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m.