Tigers pull away after a slow start
Texas Southern played 11 of its 13 nonconference games this season on the road. It’s not until conference gets under way that the Tigers are accustomed to playing regularly at the H&PE Arena.
But make no mistake about it, the Tigers do like to protect their home court. On Saturday, TSU did just that. After a slow start, the Tigers came alive late in the first half and never trailed in the second as they fended off SWAC rival Prairie View A&M 71-67 for their fifth straight home win over the Panthers.
“We prepared for this game all week … just knowing that we had to come out with energy and defend our home court,” said Tigers guard Bryson Etienne, who posted a team-high 18 points and helped run the point in the absence of injured Tyrik Armstrong. “That’s what we got to do; we have to stay resilient at home.”
TSU’s largest lead was eight points in the second half. Prairie View’s largest lead was seven points in the first half.
“They’re a good basketball team,” Etienne said in describing the Panthers (610, 2-1), the reigning SWAC regular season and conference tournament champions. “We just tried to keep the pressure on. Even though we were missing guys, we were just ready.”
Armstrong, TSU’s leader in scoring (14.8 points) and assists (4.9), missed his second straight game with a high-ankle sprain.
A driving layup by Devonte Patterson got Prairie View to within 65-64 with 1:52 remaining, and Antione Lister’s 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds left cut the deficit to 70-67, but TSU (5-11, 2-1) held on.
TSU big man Yahuza Rasas contributed 11 points, 12 rebounds and four four blocks.
“It was a big win, and it was a big game,” Rasas said.
Patterson had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Prairie View. Gerard Andrus, who came in shooting 56.9 percent from the field, tops in the conference among guards, chipped in 16 points on 8-of-16 shooting.
The teams battled to a 3636 tie at halftime after the Panthers controlled the early portion of the game.
“We went to the locker room, and we all wanted to win and celebrate,” Rasas Patterson, a 6-7 senior forward and the preseason SWAC Player of the Year, had 15 points and eight rebounds in the first half. But the Tigers
held Patterson in check in the second half, limiting him to six points and three rebounds over the final 20 minutes.
“He’s an excellent player; he plays off of his energy and his team feeds off of that,” TSU coach Johnny Jones said. “We just tried to defend him and make him play over top of us and make sure he didn’t get too many secondchance opportunities.
“He still had a great night. Our biggest thing was to make sure other guys didn’t go off and have career nights against us.”