HOUSTON, Texas (Men's Basketball) – After a long season as the underdog of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the Grambling State University Tiger basketball team almost reached the championship game of the SWAC men's basketball tournament on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers fought hard but were defeated by No. 1 seed, Texas Southern University, 62-57.

Both teams had trouble scoring in the first half of play. Texas Southern committed 14 turnovers to GSU's seven. The Tigers could not capitalize on TSU's mistakes and quickly fell behind by 10 points with 15:06 left and played catch up for most of the half.

In the second half of play, the G-Men came out ready to do battle and tied the game at the 12:26 mark. Remond Brown landed a jumper after an Ivy Smith, Jr. assist to make the score, 35-35. With 11:56 left, Smith was clutch again as he stole the ball, hit a fast break lay-up and gave the Tigers their first lead of the game, 37-35.

In the last 10 minutes of the contest, Texas Southern began to pull away from GSU again. TSU worked their way to an 11 point lead with 5:37 in the game. The Tigers attempted to claw back but nothing doing. Brown's lay-up with two second left in the game was Grambling's last breath.

"We didn't do enough to win tonight but I'm proud of the effort we exhibited. I think we gave them all they wanted. We'll just keep on pushing," said Head Coach Shawn Walker.

Grambling, who was picked to finish last in the conference, ends the season with an overall record of 16-17 and SWAC record of 10-8. Avery Ugba was named to the All-SWAC First Team.