Mississippi Valley State is on a slide in Southwestern Athletic Conference play.
MVSU has now lost five straight in league play and is 1-6 overall after Monday’s loss to Texas Southern, which rallied with a second-half burst then held on for a 65-62 victory in Itta Bena.
Trailing 40-30 shortly after halftime, Texas Southern (9-11, 4-3) used a 13-0 run and never trailed again. The Delta Devils (3-18) tied it at 54 with Dante Scott’s layup with 7:08 left, and at 56 three minutes later with another layup by Scott. But Jeremy Combs followed with a layup and Tyrik Armstrong made a 3-pointer with 88 seconds left.
Armstrong and Shawn Olden II each made a pair of foul shots to close the win as Valley’s Michael Green missed a 3-point heave at the buzzer.
Armstrong and Eden Ewing each scored 15. Ewing missed just one of his eight shot attempts for Texas Southern.
Scott and Grego Jones-Rollins each scored 12 to lead MVSU.
On Saturday, Gary Blackston had 14 points with 11 rebounds, Gerard Andrus scored 15 points and Prairie View A&M defeated Mississippi Valley State 89-78.
SWAC-leading Prairie View (8-11, 6-0) also got 13 points from Devonte Patterson and 11 points from Darius Williams.
Green led MVSU with 15 points. Jordan Evans added 14 points and Scott scored 11 with eight rebounds for the Delta Devils.
Prairie View took the lead for good when Patterson scored near the 14-minute mark of the second half. Antoine Lister and Chancellor Ellis followed with back-to-back 3-pointers and the Panthers were up 58-51. They led by double-digits most of the final 9 minutes.
Valley’s lone SWAC win came in a 72-63 decision over Alabama A&M on Jan. 12.
Valley will try to turn things around Saturday on the road against instate rival Jackson State, which is coming off a 65-63 win over Grambling State.
Chris Howell had 19 points and 10 rebounds to carry J-State past the G-Men. Venjie Wallis tacked on 14.
