The #16 Prairie View A&M University Panthers showed early that they came to compete with the hopes of beating the #1 seed University of Florida Gators. The Panthers were down early in the game, going scoreless for 3:15 at the start of the game. However, the Panthers were able to tie the game 15-15 on a Cory Wells three-pointer. The Gators went on an 18-0 scoring run, holding the Panthers scoreless for 2:40 seconds before the Panthers scored their next points of the game.
The Gators took advantage of their size against the Panthers’ front court, scoring 38 points in the paint, shot 40% from behind the three-point line, and 75% as a team, at the half. The most glaring stat from the first half was that the Gators kept the Panthers scoreless in the paint. For the game, the Gators scored 60 points with 7 players scoring in double digits. Boogie Fland led all scorers with 16 points, Thomas Haugh scored 14 points, Reuben Chinyelu had a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, Alex Condon scored 13 points, along with Urban Klavazar scoring 11 points, and Xaivian Lee and Micah Handologten both scored 10 points.
Prairie View A&M’s scoring spark would normally come from Cory Wells to get the team motivated, picking up the pace from his energy in the game. In this matchup, scoring came from his teammates, who were trying to pick up the slack because the team was falling behind due to their ice-cold scoring droughts throughout the game. Tai’Reon Joesph led all Panther scorers with 16 points off the bench. Dontae Horne scored 12 point and Cory Wells scored 9 points.
Read More: Gamecock Dominance: Southern University Matchup Highlights
The Panthers tried to use their perimeter shooting to pull the Gator defenders out of the paint, hoping they would guard the shooters instead of packing the paint, preventing the PVAMU ballhandlers from driving and passing the ball to their teammates for easy baskets. Prairie View A&M made 1 of 11 three pointers in the second half, making things more difficult for the Panther players to score in the paint. The Gators either blocked their shots or held the Panthers to one shot opportunity that turned into points at the other end of the court.Â
The Panthers showed they could compete early in the game, but as the game waned on, Florida’s size and depth on the bench were too much for the Southwestern Athletic Champions to contend with in the game. Prairie View A&M’s season has come to an end after the Florida Gators defeated Prairie View A&M 114-55. The Gators will move on to the next round of the NCAA tournament.