By: Habtom Keleta-Asst. AD for Media Relations
Box Score BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | The Grambling State University men's basketball team was eliminated in the semifinal round of the 2021 Cricket Wireless Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Men's Basketball Tournament with a 75-63 loss to Prairie View A&M in Bartow Arena.
"Tough loss," said GSU head coach Donte Jackson. "We definitely didn't want to lose. I thought we had a tough stretch of not scoring the ball, but unfortunately, our season ends. We have to get ready to regroup and try to figure it out again."
The Tigers trailed by just three points at halftime as second-team All-SWAC selection
Cameron Christon led the team with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and connected on 5-of-7 from the charity stripe. Christon also grabbed seven boards while teammate
Tra'Michael Moton filled the stat sheet with 10 points, six boards and five assists. In the latter half, the Panthers outscored the Tigers by nine and pulled away late in the game despite
Grambling closing the gap as small as six points with less than two minutes remaining in the contest.
"I think going into the first half, the major concentration coming into the game was taking care of the ball," said Jackson. "When you play Prairie View with the run and jump trapping situations that they do, you have to be mentally and physically tough with the ball. Unfortunately, coming out of that second half, we had two turnovers right out the gate that spurred them on to their run, and that was tough."
Senior
Prince Moss produced 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, grabbed three boards, generated two steals and dished out one assist for the Tigers while fellow senior
Terreon Randolph added nine points, eight boards and one assist in 34 minutes of action. Senior point guard
Trevell Cunningham proved to be a stat stuffer and produced seven points, eight rebounds, three assists and one steal in 31 minutes.
"In this game, we just knew we had to come out strong," said Moss. "Sometimes it doesn't go your way. This year with COVID, we've done a lot; we stayed together with everything that was going on. As a team, we just tried to do everything that we could to have the best season possible, but we came short because it wasn't quite the outcome we were looking for, but next year will be a different story. We have a lot to hold on to, a lot to think about, and a lot to work for."
Grambling held Cam Mack to just four points in the game, but other Panthers players hit key shots and shined at the free throw line as Prairie View shot 20-for-23 as a team.
"I thought we stifled them a little bit when we switched up our zones and tried to keep them out of the paint as we also tried to make sure that Mack wasn't overly effective," Jackson explained.
Faite Williams and Lenell Henry both finished with 18 points apiece for Prairie View A&M, who eventually fell to Texas Southern in the SWAC championship game.
Grambling finished the season 12-12 overall and 9-6 in SWAC play.
"This has been one of the toughest seasons," said Coach Jackson. "All the uncertainty; you play one day, you are off six or seven days, you play a day, you are off for two weeks. Even as a coach you are simply trying to figure out what is too much. It has been a tough year, so I told my guys I appreciate them. Just to be here every day working hard for a common goal is important, not only for us as a coaching staff but as an institution. For us not to have any COVID cases, and really buying in, being together all the time and not having stops, made the difference," Jackson stated.
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