Nov. 21, 2005

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The University of Texas-Pan American women's basketball team (0-2) appeared to be raining on Cynthia Cooper's head coaching debut for Prairie View A&M (1-0), never trailing until there was less than one second left in the game as the Lady Panthers stunned the Lady Broncs with a 67-66 defeat in front of 2,057 fans at the UTPA Fieldhouse on Monday (Nov. 21).

The first half was back and forth, with both teams going on serious scoring runs. The Lady Broncs jumped out to a 16-0 lead at the 14:04 mark on a jumper by forward Dottie Knerr (Winter Park, FL/Winter Park H.S.). Prairie View then went on a 16-5 run of their own to pull within five points of UTPA with 10:49 left in the half.

The Lady Broncs would regain a 16 point advantage with a 12-1 run over the next five minutes of the game to take a 33-17 lead. After leading by 10 at the half, UTPA built their biggest lead of the night on a MaHogany Daniel (Corpus Christi, TX/Mary Caroll H.S.) free throw which gave the Lady Broncs a 17 point lead at 48-31. Daniel finished the game with 11 points and nine rebounds for UTPA.

Prairie View began to slowly chip away at the Lady Bronc lead, cutting the margin to single digits with 7:06 left to play on a Twila Stokes jumper. With the game tied and just five second on the clock, Teshay Winfrey (Houston, TX/Eisenhower H.S.) hit a free throw to gain a one point advantage. Angel Smith then drove the ball all the way down the court and threw up a bank shot from under the basket right before the buzzer, giving the Lady Panthers their first, and last, lead of the game, 67-66.

"We took several quick shots and I think the girls may have gotten caught up in the moment. Prairie View needed opportunities to get back in the game and provided them those opportunities by taking shots to early in the shot clock," said head coach DeAnn Craft.

Somewhat lost in the excitement of the close game and the first game for former WNBA star Cynthia Cooper-Dyke at the helm of the Lady Panthers was an outstanding performance from senior guard Dominique Montague (Gilbert, AZ/Gilbert H.S.). Montague led the Lady Broncs in scoring with a career-high 19 points on 7-7 shooting from the floor, including 5-5 from behind the three-point arc. She accounted for 17 of her points in the first half of the game, taking only one shot in the final 20 minutes.

"Dominique provided one of the finest shooting performances I have seen in my 17 years of coaching. She empowered our team to win tonight, we just didn't make it happen. On the floor, we forgot who our star was and didn't get her the ball," added Craft.

The Lady Broncs shot 41.5 percent from the field while Prairie View A&M finished with a 37.9 percent shooting night. The win marks the first time the Lady Panthers have ever defeated the Lady Broncs. Coach Craft knows losses like this are going to happen and what's important is how the team responds.

"Character is defined in a lot of ways. Every team experiences a loss like this, but if it's not a wake up call for our team, then we need to change how we prepare. It won't be fundamentals we need to work on, it will be character," concluded Craft.

The Lady Broncs are back on the court on Wednesday (Nov. 23) when they travel to Lafayette, LA to take on the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette with tip-off set for 7:00 p.m.

UTPA Sports Information