BOX SCORE
ITTA BENA, Miss.- Prairie View A&M seemed to have the SWAC upset of the season in hand, but a three-pointer in the final moments of the game by Mississippi Valley State and a couple of missed free throws by the Panthers turned a potential one-point victory into a crushing 60-58 loss to the newly crowned Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season champions Saturday night.
A hectic final minute left the crowd in the Harrison HPER Complex on the edge of its seat.
Jules Montgomery tied the game at 56 with 1:26 left with two clutch free throws after being fouled by Brent Arrington on an offensive rebound.
On the next possession, Mississippi Valley's Paul Crosby was then fouled by Jourdan DeMuynck with 54 seconds left but hit 1-of-2 from the line to give his team a 57-56 lead. Prairie View turned the ball over with 42.6 seconds left and was in desperate need of a defensive stand. They got it.
Demondre Chapman challenged a Crosby layup but Cor-J Cox got the rebound for Mississippi Valley but traveled as he came down with the board with 14 seconds left. On the inbounds play, Arrington fouled Louis Munks with 12.9 seconds left. With the poise of a veteran, Munks knocked down both free throws as the Panthers took a 58-57 lead. However, Crosby hit a corner three with six seconds left to give MVSU a 60-58 lead. With time running down, Tim Meadows dribbled the full length of the court and drew a shooting foul on a layup attempt with 0.3 seconds left.
He, however, failed to make the first attempt. This forced him to intentionally miss the second shot for a last-second tip-in attempt. The Panthers failed to get the rebound and lost the close game.
Crosby finished with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds for Mississippi Valley, who is still undefeated in SWAC play at 14-0.
DeMuynck hit a pull-up jumper in the lane with 5:23 left to cap off a 13-3 run for the Panthers and cut his team's deficit to 53-52. However, Prairie View would only go on to score six points in the final five minutes of the game.
The Panthers trailed 36-28 at the half as they had trouble countering the 12-point halftime performance of Crosby. The 6-8 big man not only had six points in the paint, but he also hit two shots from downtown.
A nasty two-handed dunk by Mayol Riathin over Cox sent the Prairie View bench into a frenzy. He threw it down over Cox and drew the foul. Riathin converted the free throw to cut his team's deficit to 19-12 with 12:08 left in the half. However, Mississippi Valley countered with a 7-0 run to claim a 14-point, 26-12 lead.
Montgomery led PV with a double-double of 12 points and 13 boards. DeMuynck and Ronald Wright both scored 11 points with Munks grabbing 10 boards and eight points.
PV travels to Pine Bluff, Ark. on Monday night to face Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 7:30 p.m.
