SWAC’s top two scorers, Crystal Schultz and C.J. Wilson are growing into leaders at Prairie View A&M

The two Prairie View A&M sophomore standout guards, Wilson, the aggressive ballhandler, and Schultz, the methodical playmaker, weren’t surrounded by a gaggle of perspiring defenders determined to slow them down. They weren’t nudged, grabbed, elbowed, or held as they sprinted to their spots on the court. Instead, the SWAC’s top two leading scorers were relaxed and smiling as their facial expressions bounced off one another on the Zoom screen, an unspoken language chiseled through bus rides, late practices, and adjusting to first-year head coach Tai Dillard-Mouton’s system.

Together, they’ve learned to speak without words.

Wilson attacks, Schultz responds.

Schultz spaces, Wilson fills the gap.

Bonded by basketball and family support, these quiet moments matter, especially when understanding takes time. December was less about results and more about trust forming in real time. Wilson and Schultz played together last season. They know the grind, patience, and trust Division I basketball demands.

Leading an even younger team, Wilson and Schultz are asked to grow faster than the calendar allows. Flowing together like lyrics of a hit song, they don’t complain—they adjust.

“They’re the yin and the yang,” Dillard-Mouton said to The IX Basketball during a December Zoom call. “They love the game, and that matters.”

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Dillard-Mouton became Prairie View A&M’s head coach in April after Sandy Pugh’s retirement. Before the team had an identity or defined roles, she immediately saw how Wilson and Schultz competed like they were playing Game 7 of the WNBA Finals.

Dillard-Mouton, who wasn’t counting shots, was looking out for who was sprinting back, talking and staying engaged when the drill broke down.

It was Wilson who didn’t stop moving. Schultz didn’t stop communicating, either.

“For us as a staff because they’re so young, we’re charging them with a lot of, I won’t say responsibility, but we’re challenging them with stepping up and being, you know, leaders of the team, both through action and through voice. With them being young, that can become a challenge.

“We’re on Crystal hard and heavy about just everything. I know they probably think we’re just nagging about stuff all the time. But you know, the things that we do press them about and stay on them about are basically things that they’re going to be challenged with when they graduate from college, when they enter their careers. But you know, with these two, I could just really tell that they were passionate about playing.”

Loving The Grind

Both Wilson and Schultz complement each other seamlessly.

Wilson, who is second in the SWAC in scoring (15.3 points per game) and ranks among the conference’s best in efficiency and rebounding, primarily brings force as an attacking guard. As for Schultz, who leads the SWAC in scoring at 15.7 points per game and is near the top of the SWAC in free-throw percentage, shooting accuracy and perimeter production, brings control as the team’s shooter.

Together, they are rising to the challenge this season, combining to score 41.3% of the Panther points. According to Her Hoop Stats, Schultz’s usage rate is 29.1%, up from 24.8% last year, meaning more PVAMU possessions are ending with the ball in her hands. Same for Wilson, who’s usage rate is 27.0%, up from 21.0% from last year.

According to Synergy, 50.0% of Schultz’s shots this season have been catch-and-shoot, and she has an effective field goal percentage of 53.9% on those opportunities where she’s 23-for-41 shooting overall.

Wilson and Schultz move with subtle rapport, each knowing where the other wants the ball and trusting the other’s instincts. “I like her tenacity,” Schultz said of Wilson. “She’s a guard, and we think only of scoring, but she takes pride in defense and rebounding. It’s great to have someone who doesn’t mind stepping out of her comfort zone. She was a two last year and sometimes our point guard, and now she’s a four. I’ve never seen somebody able to change complete positions and still be able to do what she does every night.”

“She’s fierce,” Wilson said of Schultz. “She is a shooter, and I am a driver. You need a shooter, and with a shooter, you need a driver. So, yeah, I love it.”

Tasked with leading a Panther team with a combined 12 freshmen and sophomores among its 14 players, Prairie View A&M is still finding its identity. The schedule hasn’t been kind, nor have the opponents, so far this season, either, as they currently have a 2-11 record.

Still, there’s a calm perseverance building and a steadiness that persists.

In a recent road game at Lamar, the Panthers, who were down, 33-13, in the second quarter, clawed back, closing the gap to 37-35 by halftime. Playing with a purple leg sleeve on her right leg, Schultz poured in 27, matching her career high, while Wilson was everywhere with nine rebounds, five assists, and 21 points. Moments like these are proof that the Panthers are moving forward.

Schultz entered SWAC play with three consecutive games of scoring at least 20 points on 44.4% shooting. She has scored 20 or more points six times this season, including a 24-point performance on the road against Texas A&M. She also scored 25 points in last Saturday’s setback to Grambling State, making it four of the last five games she’s topped at least 20 points.

“I know our schedule is helping us see what we need to work on,” shared Schultz.

“When we get to the SWAC, we’ll be prepared for it. But so far, I think it’s going pretty well. … Things I’m learning are really mainly off the court. The staff is very motherly. I don’t have my mom here with me, so if I need help with anything, or mentally, I’m going through something, you know, they’re very open to hearing things and understanding.”

The Beginning

The 5’9 Wilson has never waited her turn. She chased footballs down the street, swapped Barbie dolls for pickup games, and soaked up every lesson her stepfather shared from the curb: Defense is effort. Rebounding is hunger. No one can take that from you.

As a guard dominating in a post player’s world, Wilson proves that the box score ignores archetypes. She’s the kind of player who takes rebounds from even taller opponents and plays with a sense of urgency that never fades.

It’s thankless work that rarely makes highlights but quietly changes games.

“Going back to my pops, he told me defense is effort, and nobody can really take that away from you,” Wilson recalled. “I just go in with the mindset that if you ain’t scoring, what else can you do to stay on the court. … I also play with a chip on my shoulder because you always get looked at differently when you’re at a mid-major. It doesn’t matter where you play, it’s who you’re playing for.”

In her free time, Wilson enjoys drawing, sketching and painting. The pace is different from basketball, but the intent is the same: she controls what she can and creates through effort. Basketball demands urgency, art allows patience. Wilson excels at both.

“I don’t get to do it as much anymore,” she says, almost apologetically of the season taking up her free moments. Still, whether she’s boxing out or imagining buildings, Wilson, who is a construction science major, sees herself managing projects and shaping structures that last – although, she does want to play overseas one day, too.

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While Wilson thinks in terms of foundations, Schultz, who is studying criminal justice, is drawn to order. When she wasn’t watching ‘Criminal Minds’ and picturing herself in their shoes, she spent long days in a church gym, where basketball became routine before a passion. Raised by an athletic family, she eventually started taking the game seriously by middle school and quickly learned that no one stands out for long at this level. After winning SWAC Freshman of the Year last season, she worked even harder this summer to elevate her game.

This season, Schultz is gliding through defenses, smooth as silk. She reads the tempo the way others study scouting reports, slowing when the pace quickens and finding space when the floor shrinks. Her shot stretches defenses, but her calmness steadies Prairie View during chaos.

“Last year was a very humbling year because everybody is playing Division I basketball, so, you know, everybody is like you,” Schultz said. “We had a decent team. We didn’t really go that far, but I had a lot of fun. The recognition for freshman year was cool, but I think the experiences that I had all year were good for me.”

Together, their ambitions broaden the lens through which they see themselves. Wilson creates. Schultz protects. One builds. One enforces. Different paths, different futures, but the same devotion to preparation, discipline, and impact.

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Prairie View A&M sees it daily, not just in points or rebounds, but in how they carry themselves between drills, in the classroom, and in conversations that go beyond the next game.

As they grow as players, and women, their futures reach far past the baseline.

But for now, the present is all they have. With losses to Southern and Grambling State at the start of conference play, Prairie View knows that the SWAC doesn’t offer soft landings.

The wins will come, or maybe they won’t. That’s the game. But the foundation is already there in rebounds snatched from expectation, in shooters trusting drivers, in young leaders learning that the grind never waits for permission.

With a new coach and a new system, their roles are still forming. As Prairie View searches for itself, Wilson and Schultz move with a veteran’s calmness, setting a tone that speaks for itself, and enjoying rare moments when they can be themselves.

There’s freedom in that.