Prairie View A&M To Clash With Lehigh In NCAA First Four Showdown

Prairie View A&M punched its NCAA Tournament ticket as SWAC champions, setting up a First Four clash with Lehigh in Dayton with No. 1 Florida looming.

Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh | HBCU Legends

HOUSTON, Tx. — Eight days ago, Prairie View A&M entered the 2026 SWAC Men’s Basketball Tournament as the No. 8 seed with unfinished business.

On Sunday, the Panthers learned their fate. They were rewarded for a stunning four-day run with an NCAA Tournament bid and a First Four appearance against Lehigh. The winner of that game will advance to face No. 1 overall seed Florida.

Prairie View earned the SWAC's automatic berth by defeating No. 3-seed Southern 72-66 in Saturday's championship game at the Gateway Center Arena. The win capped a climb from the bottom half of the bracket to conference champion.

The victory gave the program its first conference tournament title since 2019 under head coach Bryon Smith. The Panthers are a rarity as an SWAC No. 8 seed winning the championship.

HOW THE SWAC WAS WON

Lance Williams scored 18 points and again steadied the Panthers at point guard in the final, while backcourt teammates Cory Wells and Dontae Horne each added 15 points as Prairie View built a 22-point second-half lead before holding off a late charge from Southern.

The Jaguars clawed within 68-66 in the final 30 seconds. Horne answered with two consecutive layups to seal the outcome and clinch the Panthers' automatic ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

PV vs. Lehigh — Prairie View will dance versus Lehigh | HBCU Legends

Prairie View finished 9 of 18 from 3-point range in the title game, shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc. Those numbers helped carry an 18-17 team onto the national stage.

Coach Byron Smith leaned on the experienced trio of Williams, Horne, and Wells, who combined for most of the Panthers' scoring in both the semifinal and championship games.

Their leadership helped transform an inconsistent regular season into a historic postseason run. That run required the field's lowest seed to win four consecutive elimination games.

THE FIRST FOUR SELECTION

The selection sends Prairie View back to the First Four for the first time since 2019, when the Panthers lost 76-72 to Fairleigh Dickinson. This time, they face Lehigh, the Patriot League champion who defeated Holy Cross, 77-70, in the title game.

The winner of Wednesday’s No. 16 PV vs. No. 16 Lehigh matchup will face top-seeded Florida in a first-round game in Tampa, FL, at the South Regional inside Benchmark International Arena.

The team cheered inside the athletic department auditorium after hearing the Panthers’ name called by the NCAA Selection Committee.

The Panthers will pack for Dayton. There, they will look to keep one of March's most unlikely runs alive against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks and, potentially, No. 1 Florida.