FRESNO, California – The Prairie View A&M men's basketball team earned its first win of the season with a hard-fought 84-78 win at defending Mountain West Champion Fresno State Monday night.
The Panthers (1-1) shot 52 percent from the field in the second half (12-23), including 21-of-25 from the free throw line in outscoring Fresno State (1-1) 48-37 in the final 20 minutes as Byron Smith gets his first win as full time head coach.
Six PVAMU players scored in double figures, led by Daquan Cook's 17 points. L.J. Westbrook scored 14, Admassu Williams 12, Ja'Donta Blakley and Tevin Bellinger each scored 11, and Zachary Hamilton 10 as the Panthers were a stellar 26-31 from the free-throw line in the contest.
Williams' two free throws with 6:28 remaining in the game gave the Panthers the lead for good, 64-63. A three-pointer from the top of the key by Hamilton gave Prairie View A&M a 73-65 lead with 3:32 to play in the game, and a pair of free throws by Hamilton with: 49 seconds to play pushed the margin to double-digits.
Cook scored 10 first-half points as the Panthers trailed 41-36 at halftime. PVAMU shot 41.9 percent from the field (13-31), as the Panthers made five 3s in the first 20 minutes and 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
Prairie View A&M returns to action Wednesday at Saint Mary's at 9 p.m. CT.
Team Notes:
- With the loss, Fresno State had its nine-game winning streak snapped at the Save Mart Center. It was the Bulldogs' first loss at home since Jan. 2 in their Mountain West home opener against New Mexico.
- This was the first ever meeting between Fresno State and Prairie View A&M.
- The 'Dogs fell to 19-4 in non-conference home games over the last three seasons.
- Fresno State outrebounded Prairie View A&M 43-29.
Rodney Terry, Fresno State head coach
On the loss…
"I have known their coach (Prairie View A&M) for a very long time, and I know that he is trying to establish something for his program right now and set the table for his coaches, something that we had tried to do six years ago, and that is playing hard and having great effort every night. We knew we were going to have to come in tonight and have a lot of energy because they were going to come in and give a lot of effort. They weren't going to come in here and be intimidated. They were going to come in and play hard. We didn't match that tonight. Right now, we are not a tough team, and we are going to have to build some toughness and some grit. We still need to find some identity in terms of leadership. Some guys have to step up right now. We have some talented guys, but they are going to have to sit down and not try to live on last year. We are going to build some toughness."
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