OMARI

[PointGuard]

Grambling Tigers (6-3) @ Pennysylvania Quakers (3-7)

After losing 7 of their first 8 games, the Quakers came into this game with a 2-game win streak. Lonnie Robertson dropped in 17 first half points to lead us to a 40-29 halftime advantage. The refs were calling the game too closely and I repeatedly got close to getting T’d, so had to back off late in the half. Penn scored the first 7 points of the 2nd half to close the gap to 4 points. But we responded by scoring 18 unanswered points to go ahead by 22 with 12 minutes remaining. We went on to score a 75-57 road win. We were +12 on the boards and made 5 fewer turnovers than the Quakers. SG Lonnie Robertson was again our leading scorer with 22 points with C Correy Parker hitting for 10 points plus grabbing 7 rebounds.

[PointGuard]

Grambling Tigers (7-3) @ American Eagles (2-7)

We can’t discount the Eagles. Their 7 losses thus far have been to some pretty good teams…and 6 of those losses were on the road. American’s top scorer is SG Curtis Kincaide who is averaging 16.2 ppg. Another good start as we scored the first 8 points of the game. But to keep our excitement in check, American returned the favor by scoring the next unanswered 8 points. We struggled through the rest of the half but only trailed 34-31 at the break. In the final 10 minutes of the game we figured out their 1-2-2 zone and began hitting shots from all over the court. We pulled away to beat the Eagles by a final 76-65 score. We outshot American 50% to 42% and dominated the glass 40-24. But we made 22 turnovers which was 7 more than the Eagles. SG Lonnie Robertson had 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. C Correy Parker and SF/SG Brad O’Neil both scored 14 points. SF Anthony Erwin tossed in 10 points. We held the Eagles’ high scoring Curtis Kincaide to just 6 points. PF Adam Scott strained his knee in the game and may miss our next game.

[PointGuard]

Point-less

Pre-conference play is winding down. We’ve now won 5 straight games with one pre-conference game remaining. But we still have had none of our 4 PG’s step up to lead our team consistently. I’ve definitely been giving them all a chance. Each will occasionally have a decent game, but then disappear for several games. It’s frustrating, but I guess we’ll just have to limp along with a very important part of our team not only unset but most often weak.

[PointGuard]

Grambling Tigers (8-3) @ Army Black Knights (6-4)

Army’s played well this year and their C David Little is averaging 25.5 ppg and 9.7 rpg. He’s scored 20+ in 7 of their 10 games with 3 of those being between 30 and 40 and in one game he’s scored 43. The guy’s simply a beast inside. He uses his bulk to move defenders and opposing rebounders around. So our main effort will be to just try to keep him from having a break-out game. So, let’s see how we do: Parker drew an early foul on Little, which is just what we wanted. Our goal was to work the ball inside, but we’re having a tough time doing it against Army’s 1-2-2 zone. So we fail to get Little to foul again in the half. He lights us up late in the half and we trail 40-33 at the break. Little scored 19 points in the first half…not a recipe for us to defeat the Black Knights. Little picks up his 2nd foul 4 minutes into the 2nd half…we need to keep pushing the ball down deep. We do it and he’s called for his 3rd foul a minute later, and he goes to the bench. We’re down 50-37 at that point though. But all Army does is give him a short blow and he’s back on the court. Army continued to best us the rest of the game. We lost 86-63 and failed to hold David Little in check as he scored 37 points, hitting 16 of 17 from the field plus he had 8 rebounds and 3 steals. For us C Correy Parker scored 18 points and SF Brody Rowland tossed in 12 points.

[PointGuard]

PreConference Game Results for Grambling



Team Stats After PreConference Play

8-4 isn’t a bad record. We didn’t play a strong preconference schedule but did play 8 of our 12 games on the road and won 5 of those games. This season our overall shooting from the field is much better than last year, but we still are shooting poorly from 3-point distance and from the foul line. I’d like to see us tighten up our defense. It’s been good in some games and bad in others.



Player Stats After PreConference Play



I’m pretty pleased with the play and strength of our interior starters and backups. After a rather slow start this season, Lonnie Robertson has been shooting better and scoring more as the season has progressed at SG. We still haven’t been able to come up with a PG who consistently plays well, and unless we can, that could spell trouble for us in conference play.

SWAC Team Records After PreConference Play



As was the case last year when they went 27-7, Texas Southern looks to be the class of the conference. The Tigers are led by a trio of young guys: freshman Ralph Jancker (15.8 ppg), redshirt freshman Matt Tebbs (13.4 ppg), and sophomore SF Derek Vaughn (13.1 ppg).

[PointGuard]

Alcorn State Braves (7-4, 0-0) @ Grambling Tigers (8-4, 0-0)

The top scorer for the Braves has been C Brett Smith who’s averaging 13.1 ppg. We came out tentatively and it was easily discernible as we shot poorly and failed to attack the glass. By the midpoint of the half we trailed by 10 points. We perked up a little after that and cut the lead to 2 before the refs continually whistled us for picayune fouls. The Braves went to the line 15 more times and scored 14 more points than us in the half. We were behind 38-32, but Correy Parker had scored 10 points for us. We scored the first 5 points of the 2nd half and I felt like we were going to move ahead and win this one. But we then went ice-cold and dropped behind by as much as 19 points. We hit a few late shots but all it did was narrow the gap a little. Final score: Alcorn State--68, Grambling--56. We lost this game due to a real crappy effort. We hit just 38% of our FG’s, 17% of our 3’s, and 60% of our FT’s and were -12 on the boards. Our only player to do a good job offensively was C Correy Parker who hit 8 of 11 shots and scored 17 points plus pulled down 9 rebounds. SG Lonnie Robertson scored 13 points but hit just 3 of 17 FG’s. It sucks to lose our first conference game, particularly when we were playing at home. We have to do better.

[PointGuard]

Mississippi Valley Delta Devils (4-9, 1-0) @ Grambling Tigers (8-5, 0-1)

Although he can play tonight, Aubrey Johnson is still nursing a sore knee, so I’m starting Brad O’Neil at SF and will sub in Aubrey for short periods of time. Brad’s played well for us coming in off the bench at both SF and SG so he deserves a chance to start. Aubrey had slipped into a slump in his recent games, so not starting may stimulate him to notch up the level of his efforts so he can get back into the starting lineup. On our first 2 possessions we made turnovers which Mississippi Valley turned into 2 driving layups. We continued to struggle but finally overtook the Delta Devils midway through the first half. We held the lead for a couple minutes and then played so badly that even though Mississippi Valley wasn’t play well, they were able to come back to take a 26-20 halftime lead. We hit just 27% of our FG’s including only 1 of 12 from 3 point distance and were -7 on the boards in the half. We continued to play as though we were slumbering in the 2nd half, but kept close to the Delta Devils because they were playing no better. Finally with 8 minutes left, we regained the lead and then slowly pulled away to achieve (no, not achieve)…we escaped with a 64-55 win. The only two players who played well for us were SG Lonnie Robertson who scored 20 points and grabbed 5 rebounds and PG Duane Robinson who had 8 points and 6 assists. As I said after the last game, “we have to do better.”

[PointGuard]

Grambling Tigers (9-5, 1-1) @ Alabama State Hornets (5-8, 1-1)

The Hornets have only played 3 home games thus far this season…they’ve won all 3. I’m starting Brad O’Neil again at SF and for the first time will start Josh Williams at PG. We kept Alabama State from scoring for 2-3/4 minutes but unfortunately we’d only scored 2 points at that point. Poor shooting (33%) and 18 turnovers doomed our 1st half efforts and led to our falling behind 39-20 at the half. Things didn’t improve at all in the 2nd half and we got creamed 81-48. Bad offense (34% on FGA’s, 17% on 3PA’s; 21 turnovers, -7 on the boards, and poor D (the Hornets hit 57% of their shots). None of our players scored in double figures. Just a horrible effort all the way around by us.

[PointGuard]

Transfer Players

It’s about the midpoint of the season.

Here’s how the players who transferred AWAY from our team are doing this season:

Drew Bekale—East Tennessee State: Averaging 12.6 mpg, 5.1 ppg, and 2.7 rpg coming in off the bench.

David Jamison—Canisius: Has started 14 of the Golden Griffins 16 games at PG and averaging 28.1 mpg, 6.6 ppg, and 5.5 apg.

Melvin Dickens—Northeastern: Has started all games at PG for the Huskies and is averaging 29.9 mpg, 7.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 4.4 apg, and 1.7 spg.

And here’s how the players who transfered TO our team are doing:

Etan Benton: Has started the first 2 games of our season at C and the remaining 13 games at PF. He’s averaging 21.5 mpg, 8.3 ppg, and 5.0 rpg. He’s scored on 64% of his shots.

Correy Parker: Began season as a sub, but won the starting C role in our 3rd game of the season. He’s presently averaging 22.4 mpg, 11.7 ppg, and 4.9 rpg while knocking down 74% of his shots.

Adam Scott: Started our first two games at SF, but now he’s subbing at PF. He’s averaged 9.9 mpg, 2.9 ppg, and 1.9 rpg.

[PointGuard]

Texas Southern Tigers (11-3, 1-2) @ Grambling Tigers (9-6, 1-2)

In contrast to other SWAC schools, Texas Southern played 9 of their 11 pre-conference games at home which helped them achieve a 10-1 record going into conference play. But that’s not to say they aren’t a very good team. They are. But other SWAC teams have shown Texas Southern can be beaten. In order to have a chance to win, though, I’ve been driving into my players’ heads that they have to demonstrate outstanding teamwork and play extremely well. TSU won’t roll over for us. OK, it’s game time now so here we go. Led by SG Lonnie Robertson’s scoring, we moved out to an early lead. But when Texas Southern began hitting their shots midway through the half, we failed to respond and by the end of the half we trailed 40-32. Robertson scored 20 of our 32 points. But other than Robertson, there was little energy amongst our other players. I screamed at the team during the 2nd media timeout of the 2nd half, but the wakeup call lasted but a few minutes. We dropped this one 78-65. We got beat on the boards 41-32 and made 6 more turnovers than Texas Southern. SG Lonnie Robertson had a big game with 34 points, but no one else on our team scored more than 6 points.