HOUSTON – Prairie View A&M's road trip started off on the wrong note as Texas Southern claimed the first half of the heated rivalry with a 64-38 win at the H&PE Arena Saturday night.

Texas Southern came out sizzling to open the contest behind the strength of an 11-0 run as the Panthers missed their first five shots along with two turnovers.  The drought would finally end with 14:02 on the clock on Admassu's Williams tip-in but TSU kept on charging as the deficit grew to 13 at 17-4 at the 12:16 mark.

The Panthers would finally settle down and begin to control the tempo on both ends of the court as senior guard Jayrn Johnson sparked a 6-0 run with four points followed by solid defense to cut the deficit to 17-10 at the 8:09 mark.  A three-point play by TSU's Jose Rodriguez ended the TSU drought but the Panthers remained close after Charleston Dobbs' putback and the ensuing free throw as he was fouled on the play.

Down 23-15 with 5:04 remaining, the Panthers would miss their next three shot attempts and TSU turned to Derrick Griffin to provide energy as he threw down two dunks to up TSU's lead to 27-15.  A missed PVAMU basket and turnover would give the momentum back to TSU down the stretch but PVAMU's Jordan Giddings got aggressive towards the end of the half and scored on two driving layups to keep the Panthers within striking distance as they trailed 30-19 at the half.

The Panthers missed their first six shots to open the second half and TSU would take advantage as they opened with an 8-0 run to lead 38-19 three minutes in.  Jayrn Johnson would take over from that point for the Panthers and scored the next five points to move the team to within 15 at 39-24.  However, the contest turned into a track meet over the next few minutes as both teams would match baskets with TSU eventually pulling away as the Panthers' scoring stalled tremendously after Johnson's basket at the 9:46 mark.

Jayrn Johnson was the only player for PVAMU to eclipse double digits with 16 points while Zachary Hamilton led the way on the boards with five.

The Panthers are back in action next Saturday at Grambling, La. as they'll face Grambling State at 5 p.m.