BATON ROUGE, La. | Tra'Michael Moton played the hero on Saturday afternoon as his clutch 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining helped the Grambling State University men's basketball team to a season sweep of its rivals, Southern, 61-57, in a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) game at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
Grambling State (11-15 overall, 9-5 SWAC), which fell behind by as many as 14 points in the opening half, trailed for 39 minutes and 47 seconds, but Moton's three, along with Cameron Christon's free throws, sealed the come-from-behind victory.
With the victory, Grambling State snapped a two-game losing streak, earned its first regular-season sweep over Southern since the 2019-20 season and Tigers head coach Donte' Jackson improved to 4-1 all-time in Baton Rouge against its rivals.
Moton led all scorers on Saturday with 16 points, including 2-for-4 from long range, with four rebounds, four assists and one steal. Shawndarius Cowart recorded a double-double of 10 points and 10 boards, with two steals, one block and one assist.
Tyrone Lyons led Southern (15-11, 10-4) with 12 points, three rebounds, three steals and one blocked shot. Brion Whitley added 11 points, two steals, one block and one board, while Jayden Saddler chipped in 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Damien Sears posted a game-high 16 rebounds, along with six points, two blocks and two assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Grambling State opened the game cold shooting, which allowed Southern to jump out to a 12-3 lead after a Brion Whitley 3-pointer with 12:42 left in the first half
- The Tigers got a 3-pointer by Chanse Robinson to trim the margin to 12-6 with 11:31 remaining
- However, Southern got back-to-back 3-pointers by Whitley and Jason Holliday, along with a layup by Damien Sears, to extend the lead to 20-6 with just under nine minutes left
- The Tigers trimmed the margin to 23-12 after a Tra'Michael Moton jumper with 5:53 remaining
- Back came the Jaguars as Whitley scored on a putback to push the lead to 27-14 with 4:32 left
- Grambling State slowly started to pull closer after buckets by Cameron Christon and AJ Taylor cut the margin to 29-23 with 1:17 remaining
- Southern got two free throws by Tyrone Lyons with 51 seconds left and took a 31-23 advantage into the break
- The Tigers trimmed the deficit to 35-31 after an A'mari McCray bucket with 17:30 left in the second half
- However, the Jaguars got a 3-pointer by Whitley and a dunk by Lyons to push the advantage 40-31 with 16:40 remaining
- Grambling State continued to slowly cut away at the deficit as Moton scored on a putback layup as Southern led 40-37 with 15:18 left
- Taylor scored on back-to-back buckets with 10:25 remaining trimmed the margin to 42-41
- Grambling State went cold from the field as Southern used an 11-2 run over a four-minute stretch to push the margin back to double digits, 53-43, with 7:09 remaining
- The Tigers continued to battle back as Moton drained a 3-pointer and Lamin sank a pair at the foul line, cutting the deficit to 55-52 with 4:28 left
- Moton was sent to the foul line with 1:23 left and drained both shots, tying the game at 56, the first tie since the start of the game
- Southern broke the tie on its next offensive possession as Jayden Sadler sank the second shot of two free throws, giving the Jaguars a 57-56 advantage with 53.1 seconds left
- After a pair of timeouts, Moton gave the Tigers its first lead of the game with 13 seconds left on a 3-pointer as Grambling State led 59-57
- After a Jaguar timeout, Sadler's jumper banked off the front iron and was rebounded by Christon with 1.5 seconds remaining
- Christon sank both shots at the free-throw line, sealing the victory and giving Grambling State the season sweep over its rivals
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Grambling State shot 34.5 percent (19-of-55) from the field and 81.0 percent (17-of-21) from the free-throw line
- Tra'Michael Moton led Grambling State with 16 points, four boards, four assists and one steal
- Shawndarius Cowart chipped in 10 points, 10 boards, two steals, one assist and one blocked shot
-The Tigers finished with 24 points in the paint, 22 bench points, 18 second-chance points, nine fastbreak points and seven points off 12 Southern turnovers
- Southern shot 28.1 percent (18-of-64) from the field and 72.2 percent (13-of-18) from the charity stripe
- Tyrone Lyons paced Southern with 12 points, three rebounds, three steals and one block
- Brion Whitley registered 11 points, two steals, one block and one board
- Jayden Saddler tallied 10 points, seven boards and three steals
- Damien Sears added a game-high 16 rebounds
-The Jaguars finished with 29 bench points, 18 points in the paint, 13 points off 17 Grambling State turnovers, 13 second-chance points and 11 fastbreak points
NEWS AND NOTES
- Grambling State completed the season sweep over Southern for the first time since the 2019-2020 season
- Tigers head coach Donte' Jackson, who is in his fifth season, is 9-2 all-time against Southern, including 4-1 against the Jaguars in Baton Rouge
- The last Grambling State loss at the F.G. Clark Activity Center came in 2018
SWAC STANDINGS
- Grambling State entered the day tied for third in the SWAC standings with Florida A&M
- Southern began the day in first place, with a one-game lead over Texas Southern and Alcorn State
- Texas Southern holds the tiebreaker over Grambling State by virtue of a season sweep
- Grambling State holds the tiebreaker over Alcorn State and Southern due to the head-to-head victory over the Braves
- Jackson State, Alabama A&M and Prairie View A&M all sit at 6-7 in conference play
UP NEXT
Grambling State returns home for the final two regular season games at Willis Reed Court at the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center. The Tigers play host to Florida A&M on Saturday during Senior Day. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m.
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