BOX SCORE

BATON ROUGE, La. – Prairie View A&M's two-game winning streak came to an end on Thursday as Southern used a pair of late free throws to claim a 64-63 win at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.

The Panthers fell behind early as the Jaguars jumped out to a 10-0 lead less than four minutes in and stretched their lead to as much as 19 with 8:58 left in the first half following a Mike Celestin three-pointer.   

With the game slipping away, the Panthers woke up and began to find themselves as junior center Mayol Riathin and freshman guard Jimmie Duplessis combined to score 16 points over the final 7:03 to key a 24-11 surge that cut PV's deficit to 37-31 at halftime.

Southern upped its lead to 10 at 44-34 early in the second stanza but the Panthers kept chipping away as they went on a 14-5 run which brought them to within one point at 49-48 with 12:02 left in the half.  The Panthers recorded the game's first tie at the 7:01 mark on Jourdan DeMuynck's two free throws and claimed their first lead (57-55) of the evening after Riathin's putback with 5:25 remaining.

From that point, both teams went back-and-forth as they were tied twice over the next two minutes.  With the contest netted at 59-all slightly under the 2:00 mark, Southern's Derick Beltran moved his team up 62-59 after a trey.  Duplessis missed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession which forced PV to foul to save time.  Southern's Fredrick Coleman missed the front end of the one-and-one free throw attempt and PV closed to 62-61 with 33 seconds left on Ronald Wright's basket.

The Panthers were forced to foul once again but this time Southern's Jameel Grace hit both free throws for a three-point lead (64-61) at the 12-second mark.  The Panthers went for the tie with time running down but came up short as Ryan Gesiakowski's three-pointer was unsuccessful.  PV's Jules Montgomery scored on the putback with less than a second left but time ultimately ran out for the Panthers as they missed a prime opportunity to solidify the No. 3 seed in SWAC Tournament play next week.

Playing a little more than an hour from his hometown of New Orleans, Duplessis led the Panthers with 15 points while Montgomery cleaned up the boards with 14 rebounds.  DeMuynck added 12 points followed by Riathin's 11 points and eight rebounds.

The Panthers close out the 2012 regular season on Saturday at Alcorn State in a 4 p.m. start.