Candice Thomas played her heart out during the last game of the Prairie View A&M women’s basketball season, as she dropped 26 points in the first half and ended the game with 40 points on 13-of-21 shooting for a new career high. Her onslaught was not enough to propel the Lady Panthers to victory in what might have been one of the best women’s college basketball games of the year. The Lady Panthers started the game full of steam and eventually held their biggest lead of the game at 16 with 11:55 in the first half. By the end of the first half, the Bobcats of Texas State had cut the lead and gone into halftime down 45-34.
The second half ensued with even more excitement as the Bobcats went on a 15-4 run to tie the game at 62 with 9:22 left. Brooke Degrate gave the Bobcats their first lead at 64-62, but Candice Thomas’ jumper with 6:16 left regained the lead for the Lady Panthers at 70-69. The next four minutes and 20 odd seconds saw the Lady Panthers execute their offense perfectly and build a 80-74 lead with just 1:44 left on the clock. The drama continued, when the Panthers went on a 7-3 run to close the gap to 83-81 with a couple ticks left in regulation. Texas State turned to Southland Conference Player of the Year Joyce Ekworomadu to connect on a beautiful three-pointer with two seconds left in the game. The Lady Panthers in-bounded but couldn’t get a shot up at the basket.
The Bobcats celebrated their first round WNIT victory, while the Lady Panthers experienced the taste of defeat for the second time in two games. The Lady Panthers and Bobcats made this one of the highlighted games of the 2007-2008 basketball season and it was a shame someone had to lose. During the game, Prairie View A&M shot 42 percent from the field while holding the Bobcats to 38 percent. The Lady Panthers were aided on the offensive end by Dominique Smith, Shavonne Smith, and Twila Stokes, 14, 13, and 12 points respectively. This year marked the Lady Panthers first 20 win season in school history. Twenty-two victories also are the most the Prairie View A&M women’s basketball program has won in its history.