Prairie View A&M Tops Navy at the Buzzer, 42-40

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas -- Prairie View A&M's Carl Blair made a driving layup with no time left to hand the Navy men's basketball a 42-40 setback in the opening round of the South Padre Island Invitational on Friday afternoon.

The loss sends Navy into Saturday's consolation game against Delaware State, starting at 11:45 AM (ET) / 10:45 AM (CT). Navy falls to 2-4 overall, while the Panthers, who are picked to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) title, improve to 3-4 overall.

Navy has now lost two straight games by two points and three of its four losses have come by five points or less.

"We had the exact same scenario as we had the other night against TCU. You have to make one more play," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "You can't go 3-of-8 from the free throw line and miss front ends of two one-and-ones. Every time we had a chance to stop the bleeding, we would miss a free throw. You can't let a guy dribble 90 feet for a lay-up to win the game. Those are winning plays you have to make. It's very disappointing, but you have to make basketball plays. Every play matters."

Navy surged out to a 24-12 lead right before halftime, before the Panthers connected on their only three-pointer of the first half to cut the lead to 24-15 at the break.

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