Prairie View A&M was defeated 69-67 on Saturday night as Alcorn State ended a difficult season on a positive note after going (2-29, 2-16 Southwestern Athletic Conference) on the season.
The Braves also lost their first 24 games of the season.
The Panthers, (16-13, 11-7) shot only 18.8 percent (3-for-16) in the second half, while the Braves made 66.7 percent of their shots (16-for-24).
To make matters worse Prairie View was leading 42-25 after the first half.
In the teams’ first meeting of the season Prairie View A&M won 82-60.
Guard Tim Meadows scored 13 points to lead Prairie View A&M.
In a battle against Southern University this past Thursday, Prairie View A&M defeated the Tigers 75-69 at the F.G. Clark Activity Center in Baton Rouge, La.
Leading by 14 with 3:33 left in the game, Southern found its shooting stroke while Prairie View went on a cold streak. The Jaguars would go on an 11-0 run to claw back within three points with only 39 seconds remaining.
In the last moment of the game players scrambled for the loose ball that guard Tim Meadows was able to grab from the crowd and instinctively call a timeout to claim possession for the Panthers.
With fouling as Southern’s only option, senior Chris Jones was buckets from the charity stripe as he went 5-of-6 over the final 25 seconds to seal the win.
Griffin played 35 minutes but went 1 for 11 from the field including 0 for 7 behind the arch.
Proving that basketball is a team sport, the Panthers overcame his poor shooting as the rest of the team shot 44 percent from the field and 33 percent from three.
Four players scored in double figures for the Panthers with Jones having a monstrous performance that featured a team-high 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists, five steals and two blocks.
Brandon Webb followed with 17 points and eight boards while Hugee and Meadows both scored 13.
Griffin said, “I feel we ended the way we needed to. Not the way we wanted, but it humbled us. I expect us to play with more hunger and not allow ourselves to get comfortable with any kind of lead. As a team we know that we can win the tournament, we just have to put together our defense and offense throughout the 40 minutes of each game we play.”
Graduate assistant Ahmed Khalfan said, “We are excited to be here, once the tournament starts everyone is 0-0. It’s a new start, and our goal is to take it one game at a time and win three to make make it to the NCAA Tournament.