The Praire View A&M Panthers were put to the test Saturday, when they faced Grambling State’s Tigers in William J. “Billy” Nicks field house. This was a game where lead changes, were frequent and neither team was ahead more than ten points. Going into the game, Prairie View was ranked seventh, tied with Texas Southern, and Arkansas Pine Bluff in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. They held a 1-2 record in SWAC play and overall they were 1-11. Grambling State on the other hand was ranked fourth, tied with Alabama A&M, and Alcorn State in SWAC play. They held a 2-2 record in SWAC play and were 5-6 overall.Prairie View scored first with a lay-up by Dominique Sharpe. Grambling State quickly answered with a jumper by Ron Ellis to tie the game at two. The game went back and forth for most of the first period. Lead changes were never more than six points over the other team, allowing each team to get on a roll to tie or quickly take the lead in the game. With 2:52 left in the period, PV went on a scoring streak with a 7-0 run, making the score 29-22. Grambling State player Marcus Watson was fouled with 14 seconds left on the clock in the first period. Watson made one of two attempts at the free throw, making the score 29-23, giving PV a slight advantage at the half. The leading scorers for PV in the first half were Clyde Pride, Jason Breckenridge, and Anthony Oha all tied with six points. Grambling State’s leading scorer was Jamar Lewis.
The second half proved to be just as exhilarating as the first half, making the game go all the way to the wire before deciding a winner. Two minutes into the half Brian Rush of Grambling State shot a lay-up to make the score 29-25, and then John Dorsey added two more points from a jumper to up the score 29-27, cutting the lead to only two. The Panthers quickly answered with a jumper by Oscar Thompson, putting PV up 31-27. PV maintained the lead for most of the half, until Grambling State caught a spark and took the lead with a lay-up by Rush to make the score 38-37 with 8:14 left in the period.
Grambling held on to the lead until 1:20 was left in the game, and Thompson hit a jumper to tie the game. The Panthers took the lead 48-45 with a three-pointer by Marlon Davis with only 34 seconds left on the clock. Grambling State turned the ball over immediately to put them into an intentional foul situation. Lewis fouled Davis immediately to stop the clock. Davis hit both free throws to make the score 50-45. Watson of Grambling State quickly scored with a lay-up to make the score 50-47. Lewis fouled Davis again, who hit one out of two free throws to make Prairie View’s lead increase 51-47 with 13 seconds left on the clock.
The final score was 51-47 in favor of the Panthers, making them 2-2 in the SWAC and 2-11 overall for the year. Grambling State fell to 2-3 in the SWAC and 5-7 overall for the year. The leading scorers for the Panthers was Sharpe with 11, Phillip Scott with 10, followed by Davis who had the crucial three-pointer to give Prairie View the lead, with nine points. Prairie View controlled the game with 13 points from turnovers and 28 bench points, which helped secure the win. As Head Coach of the New York Jets Hermann Edwards would say “You play to win the game.