PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas –  The Prairie View A&M men's basketball team fell to Arkansas Pine Bluff 72-66 Saturday evening at the William J. Nicks Arena.
 
The Panthers fell behind early in the contest, trailing by as many as 25 in the first half, before cutting their lead to two late in the contest. Gary Blackston led the Panthers in scoring, tying his season high of 27 points shooting 10-14 from the free throw line.  The junior guard also added eight assists and eight rebounds. Troy Thompson had a season high 15 points and shot 37 percent shooting from beyond the three point arc.
 
The Panthers broke rather slowly out of the gates, shooting less than 30 percent from the field in the opening minutes of the contest. The Golden Lions would take advantage racing out to a 23-4 lead with 11:13 left in the first half. Prairie View A&M would later trail by a score of 33-8 with 5:57 left in the half. As the first half came to a close, the Panthers would start to put a dent in the UAPB advantage. The purple and gold went on a 14-5 run to finish the half as the trio of Blackston, Thompson and Zachary Hamilton, would each drain jumpers from beyond the arc. At the end of the first half PVAMU had cut the lead to a manageable 15-point deficit, 37-22.
 
Unlike in the first half, Prairie View A&M erupted early in the 2nd half, shooting 50 percent from the field in the opening eight minutes of the final half of play.   The hot shooting allowed the purple and gold to go on a 13-0 run to cut the Golden Lion advantage to just single digits. The scoring burst was keyed by pivotal baskets by Iwin Ellis, Shaquille Preston, and Blackston.  With 13:37 left in regulation, senior guard Thompson nailed a triple to bring the Panthers within one possession of the lead.
 
The golden lions would respond in the following minutes, outscoring PVAMU 14-5 in the subsequent seven minutes of play. With 6:49 left in the contest Arkansas Pine-Bluff held a 56-45 advantage. PVAMU would again show remarkable resilience cutting the lead to just five with 1:15 thanks to an 18-7 scoring spurt. A Thompson three point attempt found nothing, but the bottom of the net to bring the Panthers within two with 60 seconds remaining in regulation.  The Golden Lions converted on field goal attempts on their two subsequent possessions to make the score 69-63 with 35 seconds remaining. Thompson would again bury a clutch triple to bring PVAMU to within three with 12.33 seconds left in regulation.  Unfortunately, the Panthers could not get any closer as UAPB nailed clutch free throws to put the game away.                        
 
When asked about the resilience and effort his team displayed battling back from a 25 point deficit Panthers Head Basketball Coach Byron  Smith said " The effort is always good, but when you expend so much energy trying to get back into the game, we didn't have much left in the final four minutes of the game. We've fallen behind in games like this early in the season, but we battled back much like we did tonight. Games like this are building blocks moving forward." 
 
The Panthers return to action on Monday, January, 22nd as they take on Mississippi Valley at the William J. Nicks Arena on Faculty/Staff Appreciation Night for a 7:30 pm tip.