TULSA, Okla. – A late rally by the Prairie View A&M men's basketball team fell short at Tulsa 77-73 Thursday night.
Gary Blackston scored a game-high 21 points to lead four Panthers in double figures. J.D. Wallace had his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Dennis Jones also scored 12 and
Zachary Hamilton scored 11 for PVAMU.
"Tough loss," said PVAMU head coach
Byron Smith. "This one really hurts. I feel for our players. We are right there but need to make more championship plays. A couple of our guys got off to slow starts but finished strong. We depended too much on the 3-point shot tonight (31 attempts, making eight), and that gave Tulsa some transition opportunities. Overall, a great effort by our guys and one we should have gotten tonight."
In a similar script over the last five games, trailing by as many as 17 in the second half, Prairie View A&M kept battling and battling and cut away at the deficit.
PVAMU cut the deficit to four on four different occasions in the final four+ minutes before making the contest a one-possession game. A three-pointer by
Shaquille Preston from the left corner made the score 69-68 with 1:23 remaining.
Following a three-pointer by Tulsa with 53 seconds remaining, a potential three-point play by Jones was ruled an offensive foul with 46.4 seconds to play.
Trailing by six, a three-pointer by
Troy Thompson cut the Panthers' deficit to 74-71 with 27 seconds to play before the eventual final margin.
There were four ties and five lead changes in the first half as the teams went back and forth over the first 14 minutes. A jumper by Blackston tied the game for the final time at 20-20 with 6:04 to play in the first half. The Golden Hurricanes went on a 14-4 run to end the half with a 34-24 lead.
The Panthers return to action Sunday in a 3 p.m. game vs. Houston in a contest to be played at Texas Southern. The game can be heard on the PVAMU Sports Network starting with the radio show at 2:45 p.m., and the contest will also be video streamed on FloHoops with links to listen, watch and get live stats at pvpanthers.com.
