By Curtis Ford, Grambling State Associate AD for Athletic Communications; featured photo by Aniya Rivers
GRAMBLING — Grambling State University picked up its first Southwestern Athletic Conference win of the season with a 79-72 triumph over Florida A&M on Monday night at the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center.
Antwan Burnett paced GSU (4-14 overall, 1-3 SWAC) with a team-high 18 points to go along with three steals, two rebounds and two assists.
Chilaydrien Newton tied a career-high, scoring 17 points in 19 minutes of action. He added three assists and a pair of rebounds.
Grambling State shot 52.2 percent from the field (24-of-46). The Tigers connected on 4-of-12 from behind the arc and was 27-of-35 at the free throw line.
GSU played from in front for most of the night, only trailing briefly in the first half. With FAMU leading 10-9 with just over 13 minutes to go in the period, the Tigers used a 15-6 run sparked by an emphatic dunk by Emeka Nnaji to craft 24-16 lead with 7:45 remining in the half.
Grambling State continued to pour it on the Rattlers in the first half, opening a double-digit advantage, 31-21, on a bucket by Mikale Stevenson with 4:19 on the clock. The Tigers carried a 39-30 lead into halftime.
In the second half, GSU grabbed its largest lead of the game, 63-47 on a driving dunk by Newton with 8:07 to play. The Rattlers didn’t go down easily, however.
Florida A&M (3-11, 0-3) embarked on an 8-0 run to cut GSU’s lead down to single-digits, 63-55, with 5:08 to go. With 1:06 left in the game, FAMU cut GSU’s lead down to 71-67, but couldn’t get any close as the Tigers wrapped up the game at the free throw line in the closing moments.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Grambling State shot 52.2 percent from the field (24-of-46) and 33.3 percent (4-of-12) from three-point range. The GSU was 27-of-35 at the free throw line (77.1 percent).
- GSU grabbed 29 rebounds.
- The Tigers committed eight turnovers.
- Grambling State scored 38 bench points, 28 points in the paint, 15 points off turnovers, 12 fastbreak points and seven second chance points.
- Florida A&M shot 43.6 percent from the floor (24-of-55) and 44.4 percent from behind the arc (8-of-18). FAMU was 16-of-19 at the charity stripe (84.2 percent)
- FAMU pulled down 29 rebounds.
- The Rattlers committed 11 turnovers.
- Florida A&M scored 28 points in the paint, 13 bench points, eight points off turnovers, nine second chance points and seven fastbreak points.
- FAMU was led by Milton Matthews who scored a game-high 27 points with three rebounds, and a steal.
Up Next
Grambling State travels to Baton Rouge, La. to take on arch-rival Southern on Saturday, January 18th. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at F.G. Clark Activity Center.
