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EUGENE, Oregon (NCCUEaglePride.com) – In a contest that that saw eight ties and 13 lead changes, a late second half run was all the Eagles of North Carolina Central University needed to finish off the Panthers of Prairie View A&M University 69-58 to end the 2011 Global Sports Hoops Showcase with a 2-1 record, giving the maroon and gray momentum heading into the holiday break.
Judging by the first 20 minutes of action it looked as if the first meeting between these two squads would go down to the wire with neither team holding a lead larger than six. In fact, there were seven ties and nine lead changes, but the swarming Eagle defense recorded four steals and forced 10 turnovers, which NCCU turned into 12 points in favor of the maroon and gray.
With 8:09 left in the first half and the game knotted up at 23, the Eagles made their best move going on a 6-0 earning their largest lead of the half at 29-23. The momentum of that rally was short-lived when the Panthers answered back with an 8-2 spurt to tie the game at 31 with 15 second left following a three-pointer by guard Tim Meadows.
NCCU took the lead at the half when junior Ray Willis (Atlanta, Ga.) was fouled in the act of shooting with 0.1 seconds left giving the Eagles a 33-31 lead.
Prairie View, Texas - Blackshear Stadium stands out as an eyesore on the Prairie View A&M campus, but it has been the site of some of the football program's biggest moments in recent years.
The Panthers beat Jackson State there Nov. 10, 2007 to clinch the program's first winning season since 1976. Prairie View topped Alcorn State a year later to finish 9-1 and capture its best regular-season finish since 1964. The Panthers did one better at Blackshear Stadium in 2009, whipping Arkansas-Pine Bluff 49-17 in their home finale to secure an undefeated Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season en route to the program's first conference championship since 1964.
Not bad for a dilapidated 6,000-seat stadium that has stood since 1960.
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Alabama A&M had little success last week against Jackson State largely because of defensive ends Joseph Lebeau and Donovan Robinson. The Bulldogs will face another dynamic defensive Saturday when they visit Prairie View.
The Panthers feature arguably the best defensive end in the country in Adrian Hamilton. A transfer from Texas Tech, the 6-foot-3, 255-pound Hamilton has 74 tackles and leads the Football Championship Subdivision in sacks with 15.5.
"He's a hell of a football player," A&M coach Anthony Jones said of Hamilton. "He's going to be very similar to what we saw last weekend with LeBeau and Robinson. He's quick. He's strong. He's relentless. He jumps off the screen."
Prairie View, Texas - Prairie View A&M came back to earth a bit with Saturday's 20-7 loss to conference rival Alabama State.
The Panthers (4-3, 4-2 Southwestern Athletic Conference) saw their three-game winning streak end under a mountain of missed opportunities. They outgained Alabama State 456-296 in total yards but committed three turnovers and missed three field goals. Prairie View also came up empty on four fourth-down attempts, including three inside the red zone.
However, there were some bright spots. The Panthers moved the ball consistently on offense, and the defense had a solid performance. Freshman running back Fred Anderson rushed for 101 yards on 20 carries, becoming the first PV player to top the century mark this year.
Prairie View, Texas - Quarterback Jerry Lovelocke threw for 242 yards and two touchdowns, and Fred Anderson rushed for two scores to help carry Prairie View A&M to a 43-34 win over Mississippi Valley State on Saturday night in Prairie View.
The Panthers (2-2, 2-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) won for the second time in three games and moved into sole possession of second place in the SWAC Western Division behind frontrunner Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Mississippi Valley State (0-3, 0-4) suffered its 15th consecutive loss and 20th in the last 21 games dating back to 2009.
Orlando, FL - The seventh annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney between Bethune-Cookman and Prairie View A&M should be quite an HBCU battle on Sept. 4 (ESPN, noon ET) at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Fla. These two schools feature some terrific players, but the most talented players will be on the defensive side of the ball.
In fact, this black college classic boasts two of the best defensive players in the FCS. Bethune-Cookman's playmaking linebacker Ryan Lewis was chosen as the MEAC's preseason defensive player of the year, while Prairie View A&M's quick-footed cornerback Moses Ellis was selected as the SWAC's preseason defensive player of the year.
Anyone who watched Moses Ellis play for Prairie View A&M over the years, and particularly last year, knows why he's considered one of the top defensive backs in the country.
He led the SWAC and the FCS with eight interceptions and 22 passes defended. In addition, Ellis had 41 total tackles with 28 solos, and was selected to the Walter Camp Foundation Football Championship Subdivision All-American team.
In case you missed Ellis' moves last season, you'll have the chance to see the senior take center stage in the seventh annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney in September at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla, pitting the Prairie View A&M Panthers against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.
SHREVEPORT, La. - Prairie View A&M went toe-to-toe with Jackson State in its Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament opener but came undone in the seventh inning en route to a 6-3 loss Wednesday afternoon at Fair Grounds Field.
Jackson State, the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Division, scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to erase a one-run deficit and advance to the winner's bracket. Prairie View, seeded third in the Western Division, will face the loser of Wednesday night's matchup between Western top seed Southern and Eastern fourth seed Alabama State at noon Thursday.
The Panthers (24-20) took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by Giovanni Angel and Evan Richard. Prairie View starter Michael Listi made that lead hold up through the next two innings but ran into trouble in the seventh.
Highlights of the 2011 Prairie View A&M Spring Football Game and interview with head coach Heish Northern after the game. The Panthers wrapped up spring practice on Friday, April 15 with its annual Purple & Gold Game at Blackshear Field in Prairue View, Texas. Log on for more information at www.pvpanthers.com.
Aiken, S.C. - South Aiken High School senior Jonathan Dingle took the next step to continuing his tennis career on Wednesday, signing to play at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas. Dingle chose the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) institution over Winston-Salem State, North Carolina Central and Florida A&M for the opportunity to compete on a bigger stage.
"The fact that they were a major D-I school and the better chances to win the conference title and make it to the NCAA Tournament," was key, he said.
The Panthers' men's tennis team advanced to the SWAC semifinals this season, and played in last year's NCAA Tournament. Dingle said he was looking forward to the travel arrangements of college tennis.
Prairie View A&M wrapped up its first spring football practice under new coach Heishma Northern with Friday's Purple and Gold game. Northern said the team managed to get out of camp relatively injury-free and achieve a lot of the goals he set at the start.
"I thought we got a lot of keys in and got the guys to understand the new philosophy and the new tempo," Northern said. "I would rate (the camp) as a 'B.' "
One of the biggest competitions in spring practice was the battle for the starting quarterback job. Northern said senior-to-be Jonathan Troast, who started two games last season, will enter fall as the No. 1 quarterback, but Andrew McGlory and Amir Smith aren't that far behind at No. 2.
PVPanthers.com sat down with wide receivers coach Harry Williams and talked about a variety of topics as the Birmingham, Ala. native begins his first year as the team's receivers coach.
A native of Birmingham, Ala. Williams spent the past two seasons as a student assistant with the Panthers while enrolled in the school's engineering program. Williams, who'll graduate in May, was a standout wide receiver at Tuskegee University and was drafted in the seventh round by the New York Jets in 2005. He has also spent time with the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, Houston Texans and the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe.
K.J. Black started his collegiate career with Western Kentucky, he showed promise early but his path eventually brought him to the SWAC and to Prairie View, Texas where he called home while playing for Prairie View A&M, an HBCU team that is up and coming, long improved from its door mat years of ten to fifteen years ago.
Black was a vital contributor to the Panthers and is one of many HBCU athletes who are considered viable draft prospects. Black was the 2009 SWAC Offensive Player of the Year helping lead the Panthers to the 2009 SWAC Championship throwing for 22 touchdowns and only four interceptions his junior year.
Prairie View A&M will feature a new look this season under first year head coach Heishma Northern and new offensive coordinator Mark Orlando, the Panthers will feature an up-tempo fast paced spread offense.
Orlando a Florida State graduate, has worked his way up the coaching ranks. Orlando started out in the high school ranks as he began his career coaching for Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Florida.
He then coached at Florida A&M for six years helping the team to a Division 1-AA National Championship, Orlando was then offered a position at Tennessee State where coached for another six years including a year at offensive coordinator in his final season with the Tigers.\
Prairie View, TX - Prairie View A&M baseball coach Waskyla Cullivan was accustomed to success while serving as an assistant under Michael Robertson from 2003-08, helping the Panthers make back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2006-07.
But when Robertson departed for Texas Southern after the 2008 season, Cullivan was promoted to head coach and proceeded to preside over two of the program’s worst seasons in recent memory.
The Panthers went 21-25 in Cullivan’s first season and followed that up with a dismal 12-35 campaign in 2010. They failed to qualify for the SWAC tournament in both seasons.
Thus, pressure was building on Cullivan to right the ship in 2011.
WACO, TX — Prairie View A&M had some fun at practice this week trying to simulate what it will take to get off a shot against the Big 12 champion Baylor Lady Bears and 6-8 center Brittney Griner. Assistant coach Rob Amboree, who is 6-5, held up a hitting pad to make the Lady Panthers shoot over it.
PVAMU vs. #1 Baylor Time: 7:30 p.m. E.T. TV: ESPN2 Internet: ESPN2 - Click Here
“She alters the game,” first-year Prairie View coach Toyelle Wilson said. “You’ve got to prepare for that.”
Ready or not, 16th-seeded Prairie View will take on No. 1 Baylor on Sunday at 6:40 p.m. in the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. Going into the unveiling of the bracket earlier this week, Wilson said she was hoping to see her Southwestern Athletic Conference champions matched against a team other than Baylor because of Griner’s potential to make it so difficult to score.
WACO, Texas — Baylor went to the Final Four last season when Brittney Griner was a freshman. This time, the Lady Bears are a No. 1 seed for the first time with freshman starting point guard Odyssey Sims. The Big 12 champions are very good — and still very young.
The 6-foot-8 Griner is among seven sophomores for the Lady Bears (31-2), who open the NCAA tournament against SWAC champion Prairie View (21-11) on Sunday night at home, where they are 19-0 this season.
Brittney Griner has already had an impact on women's basketball like few players before her. The 6-foot-8 Griner can dunk, rebound, block shots and alter games with her imposing presence in the lane. Yet as dominating as she has been in her two seasons for the Baylor Lady Bears, she isn't so sure she has lived up to the billing.
"I don't think I'm as good as what everybody says I am," Griner said. "I think I'm alright."
Baylor has already been to a Final Four with Griner, making it last year when she was a freshman on a team that had lost its top four scorers from the previous season. This year, the Lady Bears were Big 12 regular season and tournament champions and are a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time.
Prairie View A&M’s Toyelle Wilson probably had the toughest act to follow of any first-year women’s basketball coach in the area at the beginning of the season.
Wilson took the reins in May after former coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke stepped down to take the top job at North Carolina-Wilmington. Cooper-Dyke, a Basketball Hall of Famer, went 86-72 in five seasons at Prairie View, leading the Panthers to four postseason appearances, including their first two NCAA Tournament appearances, and three Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season titles.
Wilson, a former assistant under Cooper-Dyke, had a huge shadow cast over her first season as head coach once athletic director Fred Washington opted to promote her. Some doubted she would be able to duplicate her predecessor’s success.
The Prairie View A&M University Department of Athletics announced its 2011 football schedule today which features a nationally televised opener one of the ESPN family of networks, four football classics in three different states and six games inside the state of Texas.
First-year head coach Heish Northern will make his head coaching debut live on national television (ESPN Family of Networks) as the Panthers open up the season on Sunday, Sept. 4 versus defending Co-MEAC Champion Bethune-Cookman in the seventh annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Orlando, Fla. at the Citrus Bowl.
In addition to Northern's debut, the contest promises to be an exciting one as new Prairie View A&M Offensive Coordinator Mark Orlando served in the same capacity on Bethune Cookman's staff in 2010.
To accommodate the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, the 27th edition of the State Farm Labor Day Classic versus SWAC rival Texas Southern will take place on Saturday, Sept. 10 in Houston. On Sept. 17, the Panthers will begin a string of consecutive home games at Blackshear Field as they take on Arkansas-Pine Bluff followed by Mississippi Valley State on Saturday, Sept. 24.
After a series of home games in September, the Panthers will live out of their suitcases in the month of October with four games on the road. The annual Southwest State Fair Classic will open the month as the Panthers will take on Grambling State at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas on Oct. 1. This year's classic should live up to the billing as Northern served as an assistant under new Grambling State head coach Doug Williams for a total of seven years, including six at Grambling State.
On Oct. 8, Northern once again walks onto familiar territory as the Panthers travel to his hometown of Baton Rouge, La. and alma mater for a huge matchup versus Southern University. While the matchup will be extra special for Northern, several of his staff members will be fired up for the contest as they also have ties to both Southern and the city of Baton Rouge.
Following the Southern contest, Prairie View A&M travels to Montgomery, Ala. to square off against Alabama State on Oct. 15 and will have its first open weekend on Oct. 22. The second annual Shreveport Classic will close out the month as the Panthers will meet Jackson State in this year's edition on Oct. 29 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, La.
For the first time since 1976, Prairie View A&M will face off against Texas State at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos, Texas on Nov. 5. The following weekend on Nov. 12, Prairie View A&M travels to Alcorn State, Miss. for a matchup at Alcorn State which recently hired Melvin Spears as its new coach. Northern and Spears both worked together at Grambling State from 1998 to 2004.
The 2011 regular season campaign concludes on Saturday, Nov. 19 as the university will hold its annual homecoming game versus Alabama A&M at Blackshear Field.
GARLAND – Prairie View A&M had a comeback in its sights after pulling within three points of Jackson State with nine minutes left in Wednesday’s Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament first-round matchup. And then suddenly, the Panthers went ice cold.
The seventh-seeded Prairie View men made just one field goal over the final 9:08 against No. 2 seed Jackson State, ending their season with a 50-38 loss at the Special Events Center.
The Panthers (10-22) shot only 31 percent and hit only two of 13 3-pointers. Prairie View fell behind 30-21 at the start of the second half, but quickly closed the gap, pulling within 38-35 on a layup by Duwan Kornegay at the 9:08 mark.
GARLAND, Texas – Prairie View A&M was challenged by Jackson State in the first round of the Southwestern Athletic Conference women’s tournament but held on for a 56-40 win Wednesday morning at the Special Events Center.
Dominique Smith scored a game-high 17 points, and Siarra Soliz had 15 points to help the second-seeded Panthers (19-11) advance to Friday's SWAC semifinals, where they’ll face the winner of the matchup between No. 3 seed Alcorn State and No. 6 Grambling State. Robin Jones also had a monster game for Prairie View, finishing with 12 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and three steals.
JACKSON, Miss. – Jackson State University Interim Athletics Director Robert Walker announced that the university has terminated second-year JSU Assistant Baseball Coach Kevin Whiteside. The termination follows an on-field altercation on Saturday, Feb. 19 which involved a student athlete from an opposing team.
Birmingham, Ala. (Feb. 21, 2011) - The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced today that four student-athletes and one assistant coach have been suspended for their participation in an on-field altercation Saturday, February 19 between the Jackson State and Prairie View A&M baseball teams. Each of the five individuals were ejected from Saturday’s game and per NCAA rules on fighting ejections, will serve a mandatory suspension without appeal.
Jackson State assistant coach Kevin Whiteside has been suspended by the league for six games and fined $2,000.00 for his involvement in the altercation.
Two Jackson State players, Kendall Logan and Marshum Hall, have been suspended for three games, and the university fined $1,000.00 for their involvement in the altercation.
Two Prairie View A&M players, Evan Richard and Andre Oliver, have been suspended for three games, and the university fined $1,000.00 for their involvement in the altercation.
The actions taken by each individual were in direct violation of the league’s policy prohibiting coaches and student-athletes from displaying unsportsmanlike behavior, which is subject to the league’s Schedule of Penalties approved by the SWAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors.
“The Southwestern Athletic Conference holds its coaches and student-athletes to a high standard, and we expect sportsmanship between our member institutions to be a high priority,” SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp said. “Two of our baseball teams, while representing their respective universities, displayed completely unacceptable behavior. The integrity and reputation of the Southwestern Athletic Conference is too important to condone these actions.”
