HOUSTON, Texas (Women's Basketball) – With 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Shakyla Hill made a free throw to seal Grambling State University's trip to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) women's basketball tournament championship on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Tigers rallied the troops, came from behind and defeated the Southern University Lady Jaguars, 65-56.

Grambling (18-13) opened the game slow and fell behind early in the first quarter. Southern (14-14)1         cleaned the boards in the two quarters as they out rebounded the Lady Tigers, 29-15.  GSU trailed for the majority of the first half. SU's largest lead of the half was 11 points with 6:12 left in the second quarter.

After halftime, Coach Freddie Murray and Grambling took the court with a new found resilience. The Lady Tigers began to claw themselves out of an 11 points hole and chip away at Southern's lead. With 6:59 left in the fourth quarter, Monisha Neal made a quick lay up to knot the score at 43. The Lady Jaguars tried to take the wind from GSU's sail as they tied the game again at the 3:36 mark, 52-52.

The Lady Tigers circled the wagons and Chantiara Lewis spear headed a scoring barrage with a three pointer with 3:24 left in the fourth quarter. Grambling extended their lead to 12 points as Jazmin Boyd drained a three pointer with 1:24 left, 64-52.

"We cut off some of the things they were trying to do in the second half and it worked to our advantage. It was an ugly game but its March Madness," quipped Head Coach Freddie Murray, "It's what March Madness is all about, ugly games. As long as you continue to keep fighting, as we did tonight, you'll were able to come out with a win."

Hill was the leader for GSU as she scored 17 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out five assists.. Hill was followed by Neal with 14 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Boyd rounded out the top scorers for Grambling with 15 points. Takerra Parson recorded the lone block.

The Lady Tigers were 42.6 percent from the field, 68.8 percent from three point range, and 50 percent free throw line.

Southern's Miaya Crowder outscored all players with a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds. She also finished with two blocks. Cortnei Purnell was the assist leader with four.

The Lady Jags were 36.1 percent from the field, 40 percent from the arc, and 30.4 percent from the stripe.

???????Grambling will play the winner of the Texas Southern University and Alabama State for the SWAC Championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPN3.