Senior guard Candice Thomas blows the roof off the William “Billy” Nicks Building with an ecstatic behind the back move saving the ball from going out of bounds line and rolling to the rim with a crowed pleasing lay-up.
The Lady Panthers lead by Head Coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke came into the match-up against Arkansas Pine-Bluff at (8-6, 5-0 SWAC). The Lady Golden Lions were a mediocre (3-13, 2-3 SWAC) lead by senior forward Shavondra Holmes and junior guard Laquisha Slaton who are the keys to their offense with Holmes averaging 13.3 per game and Slaton leading the team in assist. Although Slaton leading the Lady Golden Lions in assist she wasn’t looking to pass the ball Saturday night scoring a game high of 31 points.
At half-time Prairie View A&M was leading Pine Bluff 43-42, with a fast start. At the 15:01 mark the Lady Panthers were up 60-50. The Lady Panthers maintained a 10-point lead for much of the 2nd half, but the Lady Golden Lions would not back down and allow Prairie View to get an unmanageable lead.
When asked about the team’s feeling about their performance mid-way through the season Thomas said, ” We feel that we are playing Ok. Every team is bringing their best game against us and we realize that we just have to keep playing together and bring the intensity and play hard every game.”
The Lady Panthers had four different players in double-digits scoring lead by Candice Thomas with 26 and Dominique Smith with 15. The combination of the Lady Panthers’ offensive play and pressure defense lead to a 87-80 victory.
Coming off a physical win over APBU the Lady Panthers rolled against Mississippi Valley with a victory of 83-62. Latara Darrett scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds as the Lady Panthers improved to (10-6, 7-0 SWAC), completing the two-game home stand and extending their consecutive conference win streak to 23 games in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The Mississippi Valley State Devilettes at (4-14, 1-6 SWAC) were no match for the streaking Panthers.
The Lady Panthers started the game fast with a 7-0 run but the Lady Devilettes would not back down. Mississippi Valley State would make it a 10-8 game, and throughout the first half would not let up as they cut a ten point Lady Panther lead down to a six bringing the halftime score to 33-27.
The second half for Prairie View A&M was a different story as the Lady Panthers would put the car in drive, and were up 46-33 at the 16:13 mark. The scoring punch of Darrett, Werema, Dominique Smith and Courtney Larsen was too much for the Devilettes to handle.
The Lady Panthers will head to Alabama for a two-game road trip to take on Alabama A&M on Jan. 30 and Alabama State on Feb. 1.