GRAMBLING, La. (Men's Basketball) - With the clock ticking down before halftime Grambling State Tigers Ivy Smith put an exclamation point on the Tigers scrappy 18-point first half lead.
Smith stared his defender down crossed over right giving the Jackson State University Tigers defender a vicious hesitation move, elevated and nailed a 17-footer sending the Fredrick C. Hobdy Center into a frenzy. Grambling State took the win 72-57 over Jackson State.
Needing a victory to move up in the Southwestern Athletic Conference standings, the Tigers sharpened their claws and went full force at Jackson State. Grambling State
Nigel Ribeiro suffocated J-State with four deep 3-pointers. Ribeiro registered a game high 20 points.
"Ribeiro is a competitor," Grambling coach
Shawn Walker said after the Tiger seventh home win. "He's not only starting to score the ball but he's becoming our verbal leader. If you can watch him on the floor he's our energy, he's our base and I'm proud of him. He's growing up he's becoming a really good leader for this team that's starting to turn this corner."
"Ivy is extremely talented and he's still trying to learn this game. Right now, we are trying to slow Ivy down. He's really good one on one, he played really well tonight and he competes. He's a really good kid. He's just gone sometimes from not playing at all to being ready and that's a testament to his attitude, "Walker added.
GSU's
Chase Cormier added 10 points and
Remond Brown included 12 points. Derek Roscoe led the way for Jackson State with 14 points and Yettra Specks chipped in 11 points. Grambling State displayed a clinic from long range nailing nine from behind the arc. The team shot 47.4 percent from the field. Grambling State played defense as well winning the turnover battle forcing 18 turnovers and recording eight seals. The Tigers scored 28 points off of turnovers. Brown kept his hand in cookie jar with four steals.
"We talked a lot this week about cleaning up our quality of play," Walker said. "We looked like we didn't practice last week in Texas. So, what we did last week in Texas to what we did tonight. I'm really going to go back in this locker room and see if the team I saw tonight can sustain that quality of play. If we can, we can get better."
Grambling will return to Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center on Saturday, Jan. 28 as they face the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.
