Prairie View A&M's brief homestand comes to an end tonight as they prepare to host Mississippi Valley State in a pivotal contest inside the Baby Dome.
Saturday's 45-44 loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff marked the third consecutive contest Prairie View A&M has dropped a contest in the closing seconds. The Panthers played solid defense to claw back into the contest versus UAPB and had the lead late but a late basket followed by an unfortunate technical foul in the final four seconds propelled the Golden Lions to the win as PVAMU's final shot attempt was blocked at the buzzer. Junior guard Tevin Bellinger continued his string of impressive performances as he led the way with 17 points followed by Jayrn Johnson's 13 points and six rebounds.
Bellinger is PVAMU's scoring leader with 12 points per game while nailing a team-high 20 three-pointers and leads the SWAC in free throw percentage with an 85 percent clip. Junior forward Admassu Williams ranks second in scoring with 10.3 points and leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per game. Williams ranks 20th in the SWAC in scoring, fifth in rebounding, ninth in field goal percentage (45%) and fifth in blocked shots with 0.8 per game while senior guard Avery Lomax leads the team and ranks eighth in the SWAC with 1.5 steals.
Mississippi Valley State arrives in Prairie View off a 15-point loss at Texas Southern on Saturday in which they were only down by two points at the end of the first half. The Delta Devils have a 2-18 and 2-4 SWAC mark and have lost three straight dating back to last weekend. MVSU overhauled its roster prior to the 2015-16 season and are led by guard Marcus Romain's 15.4 points per game. Junior guard Isaac Williams follows with 11.1 points while junior small forward Damian Young rounds out the double digit scorers with 10.8 points per contest.
Even though Mississippi Valley State leads the series with a 54-21 mark since 1980, the Panthers have regained the upper hand recently with wins in 10 of the past 19 contests against the Delta Devils. Last year's season sweep over MVSU marked only the second time since 2010 that the Panthers recorded a season sweep over the Delta Devils.
Head coach Byron Rimm II has a lifetime mark of 10-11 against MVSU. Rimm and MVSU head coach Andre Payne were students at Alabama A&M for a season and hooked up once again at Texas College as Rimm coached the women's team while Payne manned the men's side. Rimm moved on to Jarvis Christian while Payne remained at Texas College before Rimm came to PVAMU as an assistant in 2005.
Prairie View A&M is back in action this Saturday as they'll head to Huntsville, Ala. to face Alabama A&M. The Panthers return home on Saturday, Feb. 6 as the anticipated showdown with Texas Southern will take place at 7 p.m.
