Box Score Below an array of retired jerseys, a trio of men's basketball national championship banners and intimately surrounded by the 2,500 capacity crowd crammed into the hot confines of Barco-Stevens Hall on Saturday, Virginia State faced Virginia Union on Robbins Court for the first time in 32 years.

In a meeting between the two teams atop the CIAA Northern Division, it was the Panthers' junior forward James Paige who shined the brightest.

Paige scored a season-high 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Ray Anderson scored 14 and Tavon Mealy (Armstrong) chipped in 10 as the Panthers snapped the Trojan's 12-game win streak and handed the defending CIAA champions their first Northern Division loss of the year with a 90-71 victory.

Union head coach Jay Butler called it a total team effort and said it was probably the best defensive effort the Panthers had put forth this season.

One other thing: "Jimmy Paige was awesome tonight," he said.

Paige shot 7 of 14 from the floor, 4 of 5 from 3-point range and the hosts held Virginia State to 32.9 percent shooting and 5 of 28 from behind the 3-point arc. They shot 53 percent themselves, going 7 of 10 from deep. 

"We have our days where we're not getting out on shooters, but tonight, we jammed all the shooters, we rebounded the ball well, and guys stepped up and played," Butler said.

After falling behind early, Union took the lead behind Paige's first 3-pointer that made it 15-14 less than 10 minutes into the first half. They would fall behind by one, 19-18, before DeAndre Thomas' layup made it 20-19 midway through.

After that, the Panthers never trailed. A 15-2 run early in the second half gave them a 17-point lead. They led by as many as 21 before winning their sixth game in a row.

With 51 seconds left, Paige checked out to a standing ovation.

"Jimmy (Paige) just made plays," Butler said. "He's been shooting the ball all year, haven't been dropping like he wanted them to, but tonight it seemed like every time he got a good look it was wide open, and he knocked down shots."

Paige was focused on making sure he stepped up.

"I haven't been playing like I want to lately and I knew this was a big game for us," he said. "I just tried to come out and play hard."

He said the intensity was high before the Panthers took their home court to face their rivals for the first time in over three decades.

"They beat us last time and we had our chance to come back home and get some revenge, so it was definitely high intensity," Paige said.

The Trojans beat the Panthers 74-59 on Jan. 15 in the Freedom Classic at the Richmond Coliseum.

The win pulled Virginia Union ahead of Virginia State in the CIAA Northern Division standings. Both teams now sit at 5-1 with four games to go until the CIAA Tournament, but VUU's 11-1 CIAA record is better than Virginia State's 10-2.

"Definitely like where we're at," Butler said. "We're always looking for a clean game and talking about playing on both ends, the offensive and the defensive, and I think we got that, where everybody played a total team effort. They came out locked in defensively. We executed on offense. They played a great game."

"We know we have a lot of talent, but we played a real complete game (tonight) and we've been looking for that the whole season," Paige said.

A complete game in a great atmosphere.

"We found out that we haven't played (Virginia State) in Barco since '85 so it was big," Butler said. "To get the Virginia State Virginia Union game in the Barco, the crowd was amazing, the band was amazing. It was just a good atmosphere on a Saturday."