ITTA BENA, Miss. (March 4, 2019) – Mississippi Valley State men's basketball (6-25, 4-13) team dropped a close game at home to Grambling State Monday evening in the R.W. Harrison Complex, 77-75. Three Delta Devils scored in double-figures behind senior Dante Scott's team-high 24 points shooting 9-of-18 from the field.
Grambling State (14-15, 8-8) finished the game shooting 49-percent (28-57) from the field and 45 percent from three-point land (11-24) sweeping the season series with the Delta Devils. MVSU trailed by 12 with 2:54 left in regulation but managed to stay within striking distance. Scott made a pair of free throws followed by back-to-back layups by senior Jordan Evans made it a 69-63 contest with just over a minute to play.
GSU made 3-of-4 free throws and pushed their lead back to nine (72-63) with 40-seconds on the clock. Junior Torico Simmons drove hard to the basket, made the shot while drawing the foul completing a three-point play. A missed attempt from the line by the Tigers left a chance for MVSU to trim the deficit further. Evans hit a three from the corner and made it a 72-69 game with 21-seconds left.
The Delta Devils were forced to foul as GSU made 5-of-6 attempts from the line the rest of the way. Evans hit another three-pointer with 13-seconds and then Scott's long-range shot went in at the final buzzer with the Tigers escaping with a 77-75 win.
The Delta Devils started the night off sluggish shooting 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) from the field and 1-of-7 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc, and they could not buy a basket in the final six minutes of the half allowing Grambling to take a 10-point lead. At the half, Scott led the scoring effort with 10 points while Evans led rebounding efforts with six.
On the night, the Delta Devils outscored Grambling in the paint 22 to 16, off turnovers 20 to 8 and outrebounded the Tigers 37 to 34. MVSU shot 24-of-64 (37.5 percent) from the field, 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from beyond the arc, and 21-of-26 (80.8 percent) from the free throw line.
Scott led MVSU with 24 points followed by 19 points from Evans, and 16 points from senior Gregory Jones-Rollins. Senior Emmanuel Ejeh grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
For Grambling, Dallas Polk-Hillard scored 26 points to lead the Tigers.
The Delta Devils will play their final regular season game Saturday, March 9 against UAPB. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m. in the R.W. Harrison Complex.
Postgame Presser
Head Coach Andre Payne
On tonight's game…
"Well it was definitely a tough one, you know. Losing this game. We knew how important this game was. We just couldn't get it going consistently. We would have a spurt where we'd run off a few buckets, and then we would go flat for too long. In the end, we ran off a couple of buckets, but we just ran out of time. I'm proud of the way my guys fought, because we stayed in it when they could've easily pulled away. Every time they'd go up eight, nine or ten, we would real them right back in. we just couldn't get them in close enough to where we could get that last shot."
On Grambling State's size working to their advantage…
"They did a good job. Their size played a huge factor on us. They brought the kid, Zavier Peart, off the bench, and he's about 6'9", 275. We couldn't stop him once he got close to the basket. Once we doubled down, they swung the ball, and Hilliard knocked down about every three he shot. He was 6-10 tonight. He would choose tonight to go 60% from the 3-point line. That was just a tough heart breaker there…"
Senior Guard Dante Scott
On his game tonight…
"I just tried to be patient on offense and find the gaps, because they kept going into their little 2-3 zone. So, when everybody was attacking, I was just cutting through the gaps…"
Senior Guard Jordan Evans
On his game tonight…
"Our game plan was right on point, it just was the little plays that we didn't make at the beginning of the game. They got us down, then it was hard for us to get back up once we got down…"
