PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers clawed their way back from a 12-point, third-quarter deficit Saturday before claiming an 80-72 win over visiting Lamar.
Jeronia Allen and Lamaria Cole scored 20 points apiece for the Lady Panthers (4-1), who matched their best five-game start to a season since 1986. Cole also had six assists and four steals for Prairie View A&M, while Allen's 20 points marked a season and PVAMU career high for the juco transfer.
"Overall it was a good collective team effort. We were able to get back to where we needed to be defensively in order to start making a run in the third and fourth quarters," Prairie View A&M head coach Dawn Brown said.
"We were waiting for Lamaria Cole to show up offensively for us, she came out in the third period and really got going in the fourth. Jeronia Allen stepped up and gave us some scoring when we were going through a little drought offensively."
Addesha Collins scored a game-high 25 points for the visiting Cardinals (2-5), who remained winless in their five games against NCAA Division I opponents.
Prairie View A&M used a 9-1 run between the 7:05 and 1:28 marks of the third period to chip away at Lamar's lead. Cole capped the run with a steal and fast-break layup to cut the Cardinal lead to 54-50 with 2:26 remaining in the third quarter.
The Lady Panthers trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half as Lamar built a 44-35 halftime lead. The Cardinals' long-range shooting helped build their first-half lead, as they drained 50 percent (7 of 14) of their treys in the first half; they shot 42 percent (10 of 24) for the game from behind the arc.
"This is the first time this season we've seen a team that can shoot the three-ball as well as they did tonight," Brown said. "Defensively we had to make some adjustments and wait until halftime to get back to the board and draw some things up differently that we were going to have to do in order to stop the bleeding from behind the circle."
With the momentum shifting into the Lady Panthers' favor, Cole gave PVAMU a lead it would not relinquish with 8:33 remaining in the game when she converted a layup while getting fouled by Laka Blache. The ensuing free throw gave the Lady Panthers a 60-59 lead.
Later in the period, Lamar's Baileigh O'Dell cut Prairie View A&M's lead back to one point at 66-65 when she knocked down a 3-pointer with 5:58. It was O'Dell's third trey of the game and second in as many possessions.
From there, the Lady Panthers went on a 10-1 run to put the game out of reach of their visitors; Tori Carter came away with a steal and then took the ball half the length of the court for a fast-break layup to give the home team a 78-68 lead with 1:46 left to play.
Carter scored 10 points for the Lady Panthers. Larissa Scott recorded her fourth double-double in five games, scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 rebounds for Prairie View A&M.
The Lady Panthers will have 10 days to rest before their next game. They will travel to Atlanta, Ga., to face Georgia Tech on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard time.
The game at Georgia Tech is part of a three-game road swing before Christmas, as the Lady Panthers will then head to Kansas to play in Wichita State's Shocker Winter Classic.
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