Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 GRAMBLING – It was quite a day at Grambling State University as the basketball G Men and the Lady Tigers defeated Alabama A&M University at Fredrick Hobdy Assembly Center Saturday (January 2).
In back-to-back games, the GSU women beat the Lady Bulldogs 75-56 then the GSU men beat the Bulldogs 81-78 in overtime after a serious back-and-forth matchup through both halves. It was the first SWAC conference game for both teams.
Coach Nadine Damond was excited with the win, but more so for her team. "Very proud of my girls tonight," she said shortly after the game. "Even though this is a young team, they played well. JTC (Johnea Thompson stood out tonight. We're going to continue to practice and play hard for our next game."
Shawn Walker, head coach of the men's team, noted that GSU had not won a Division I conference game in more than two years.  "We got the monkey off our backs. We're trying to change the culture here, and now these guys believe that they can win.
"We haven't been in a game up 3 with 30 seconds left, so I'm proud of them. Certainly they're happy, …and we're going to take this momentum into the rest of 2016."
It was a rough start in the beginning of the first half for the men's squad of the Tigers against the Alabama A&M Bulldogs. Remond Brown was the first to score for his team for the evening, and points weren't scored again until nearly two minutes later -- by the Monroe native.
The struggle didn't last long though as a 2-point shot by freshman Nigel Ribeiro closed the gap. The basket made by Ribeiro gave the Tigers their first lead for the night, and a steal by forward Mark Gray passing to Ribeiro gave the Tigers a 6- point lead. 
At halftime the Tigers were up by 3, 35-32 against the Bulldogs. Ribeiro put up 11 points while teammates Deonte Hearns, a guard, with 10 points and six rebounds and forward Chase Cormier had 10 points.
The G Men continued to impress in the second half of the game.  A steal by guard/forwardMichael Bethea Jr following a 2-point shot, drawn foul, and a 1-point bucket by Gray set the Tigers up for continued momentum with a clear tenacity that made it hard for the Bulldogs.

After both teams scrambled putting points on the board, a missed shot by Ribeiro sent the game into overtime. After some trading of points, GSU pulled it out with a series of defensive and offensive plays. Lead scorers in points for the game were Ribeiro with 18, and Hearn and Gray each had 15.

Earlier, when the women played, it was the GSU Lady Tigers with an easier win over the Lady Bulldogs, though the scoreboard didn't reflect the fierce play by the Alabama team. 
The first quarter was all Lady Tigers as they led by 13. Jazmine Boyd was the high scorer with 16 points in 26 minutes of play, including a nice spin move before halftime. John'ea Thompson hit a buzzer beater to end the first quarter. Thompson finished with 14 points with 22 minutes of play.
Grambling went on at run before the Lady Bulldogs cut the lead back to 13 at halftime with the score 40-27.
True freshman Shakyla Hill found herself in foul trouble, leaving the third quarter with four fouls and after scoring 9 points.
Next up for the Tigers teams is another home game, this one against the Alabama State University Hornets on Monday (January 4). The Lady Tigers play at Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center at 5:30 p.m. and the men's game follows.

See the women's game stats at http://www.aamusports.com/boxscore.aspx?path=wbball&id=3522.

See the men's game stats at http://aamusports.com/boxscore.aspx?path=&id=3492.
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