LAS VEGAS - The Prairie View A&M University men's basketball team posted its first win of the season with a wire-to-wire 80-70 win over Eastern Kentucky Monday in the MGM Resorts Main Events Tournament at T-Mobile Arena.
Prairie View A&M (1-3) never trailed in the contest against Eastern Kentucky (2-2) of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Zachary Hamilton tied a season-high with 23 points with four rebounds and two steals to lead three Panthers in double figures.
Gary Blackston had season highs in points (19), assists (five), and steals (three) while adding five rebounds.
Dennis Jones scored 14 off the bench with three assists.
The Panthers forced a season-high tying 19 turnovers leading to a season-high 27 points in collecting the Southwestern Athletic Conference's first win over a Division I opponent this season.
"This was a total team effort for 40 minutes, which is the first time this year we've put two halves together," said PVAMU head coach
Byron Smith. "We shot fewer threes (a season-low tying 18), so the main focus was driving to the basket. We were really good at the free throw line (season-high 82.6% on 19-23 attempts). Hamilton, Blackston, and Jones were really good on the perimeter. J.D. Wallace (six points, five rebounds), and
Iwin Ellis (three points, three rebounds) were grown men today on the interior."
Hamilton's three-pointer opened the scoring and sparked an 8-2 run for Prairie View A&M, which took its first double-digit lead at 19-9 with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half on a pair of free throws by Jones. The free throws were part of a 10-2 run capped by a Hamilton jumper which gave the Panthers their largest lead of the first half at 21-12 with 10:47 to play until halftime.
PVAMU opened the second half with a 39-29 lead, but six quick points by the Colonels cut the lead to four in just over a minute. However, a steal and subsequent three-point play by
Shaquille Preston pushed the lead back to seven.
After a basket by Eastern Kentucky cut the Panther lead to five at 45-40 with just under 16 minutes remaining, a three-pointer by
Troy Thompson on the ensuing possession pushed the lead back to eight at 48-40. The Panthers led by no less than six points the rest of the contest.
The Panthers will face the winner of Georgia State and Eastern Washington Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT. The game can be viewed live online via FloHoops, with links to watch and get live stats at pvpanthers.com.
