GRAMBLING, La. – The Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers ran their winning streak to five straight capping the squad’s ninth SWAC victory by defeating Grambling State 46-40 on Friday evening at the Fred Hobdy Assembly Center.
The Lady Panthers stormed out to a 10-4 advantage six minutes in before Grambling State guard Alexis Watson and forward Secrett Anderson knocked down consecutive jumpers to draw within two points (11-9) a minute later. Prairie View managed to bounce back immediately as they upped the margin to 16-10 via a Siarra Soliz three-pointer from the corner at the 7:48 mark.
The Lady Tigers continued to hang around as Kristen Harper nailed a trey to cut their deficit to 16-13 on the ensuing possession. From that point, the game stalled for a three-minute span as both sides went cold from the field. Prairie View A&M senior post Robin Jones put an end to the scoring drought as the Waco, Texas native went 2-of-2 from the free-throw line pushing the advantage to 18-13 with 6:44 remaining in the first half.
Jones continued her strong play as she gave Prairie View its largest lead of the half on a putback basket for a 20-13 margin. However, that would be the final highlight of the half as Prairie View went 1-of-7 from the field over the final three minutes. As a result, GSU chipped away at the lead and trailed 22-19 at the break.
Prairie View A&M solved its shooting woes to begin the second stanza as they stormed out to a 34-25 advantage with 13:35 remaining. From that point, Prairie View and Grambling traded baskets as the margin shifted from seven to nine points on multiple occasions but the Lady Panthers remained consistent down the stretch as they claimed a double digit lead at 40-30 on Latia Williams’ jumper with 9:13 remaining.
In similar fashion to the first half, the Lady Panthers went cold down the stretch once again as a 10-2 spurt by Grambling State cut PV’s deficit to 42-40 with 3:35 remaining. With the game on the line and time running down, Prairie View’s Siarra Soliz was whistled for an offensive foul with 36 ticks remaining which put the ball back in Grambling’s hand. However, PV responded on the defensive end as GSU shot an air ball on the ensuing possession. As a result, the Lady Tigers were forced to foul and PV’s Robin Jones iced the game as she went 4-of-4 from the charity stripe over the final 30 seconds.
With the win, Prairie View A&M advanced to 13-9 on the season and 9-2 in conference play. Jones and Soliz led the way scoring 16 points each while Whitney Williams added six points while pulling down seven rebounds.
The Lady Panthers are still in the hunt for the top spot in the SWAC as they trail Southern University by one game. Prairie View returns to action on Monday as they enter the final game of its three-game road swing with a matchup versus Jackson State at 5:30 p.m
