The second seeded Prarie View A&M Panthers dispatched the seventh seed Alcorn State 87-71 last night in the opening round of the SWAC Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Prarie View’s J.D. Wallace and Dennis Jones recorded double-doubles, with Wallace scoring 16 points and dishing out 11 assists and Jones providing 16 points and distributing 14 assists. However it was a team effort as all five Prairie View starters scored in double figures. Gary Blackston led the way with a game-high 21 points; Troy Thompson had 18; Zachary Hamilton added 12 points and 8 boards.
Prairie View led by as many as 13 in the half; Alcorn would claw their way back , even taking a one point lead,45-44 less than four minutes into the second half.
With 15:32 left in the game the score was knotted at 47, Prairie View outscored Alcorn 40-24. The Panthers would extend the lead to 11 at 67-56 on a Troy Thompson three-pointer. Over the course of the seven-plus minutes remaining Alcorn would close to no closer than nine points.
Prairie View now moves on to face #3 seed Texas Southern Friday in a semifinal game that tips off at 8:30 pm.
