Presbyterian wins tournament debut over Sacred Heart
Grambling State rallies in OT to topple Montana State 88-81
DAYTON, OHIO>> Jimel
Cofer scored all 19 of his points in the second half and overtime and Grambling State rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Montana State 88-81 to earn its first NCAA Tournament win in program history in the First Four on Wednesday night.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Tigers (21-14) advance as the No. 16 seed in the Midwest Region to play No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday night in Indianapolis.
“Incredible. That’s what March is made of, baby,” Grambling State coach Donte’ Jackson said. “You got to find a way to fight, stay in the game, and have that one last run.”
Montana State’s Robert Ford III made his fifth 3-pointer of the game to tie the game at 78 for the Big Sky Conference tournament champions with 2:02 left in overtime, but Grambling iced the game from the free throw line with eight straight points.
Montana State (17-18) went 1 of 6 in the final 1:27 in failing to win its first NCAA Tournament game in its sixth attempt.
Burnett and Jourdan Smith had 18 points apiece for the Tigers.
Grambling State, which was playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time despite a 2-10 start to the season, rode a secondhalf surge going on a 21-6 run erasing its 42-33 halftime deficit. Cofer, who didn’t play in the first half, flipped in a layup as part of an individual 6-0 run giving the Tigers their first lead of the second half 6059 with 5:47 remaining in regulation.
Cofer laid in a game-tying score with 34 seconds left to knot it at 72, and Montana State’s Brandon Walker missed a potential go-ahead layup with 9 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Montana State shot 63% in the first half and held a lead as large as 14 in its third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
“There were some definite momentum swings,” Montana State coach Matt Logie said.
Ford had 26 points to lead Montana State. Brian Goracke added 15 and Brandon Walker had 14.
“I would just say I understand how hard it is to get here,” said Ford, who hit six 3-pointers. “There’s a lot of great players in the league. There’s a lot of great teams. The biggest part is understanding what it takes to get here and when you get here, what it feels like.”
COLUMBIA, S.C.>> Mara Neira made sure Presbyterian’s first-ever NCAA
Tournament game was memorable, scoring 14 points, including two free throws with 26.1 seconds left, as the Blue Hose beat Sacred Heart 49-42 in the First Four on Wednesday night.
The Big South Tournament champions earned a Friday rematch with topranked South Carolina, which administered a 9929 beatdown on this same floor on Dec. 16. Presbyterian is the smallest school in the tournament with 955 undergraduates in 2022-23.
Last year, Sacred Heart won the first NCAA Tournament game for a Northeast Athletic Conference team with a 57-47 win over Southern.
The Blue Hose won the battle of 16-seeds with defense, limiting Sacred Heart, which had won 15-straight games, to 25% shooting, including 3 of 23 from 3-point range.
Bryanna Brady added 12 points for Presbyterian (21-14), which had to beat three higher seeds in the Big South tourney to extend its season. Tilda Sjokvist, the Big South tourney MVP, had eight points, six assists, four rebounds, two steals and a block. Although Sjokvist was 3-of-13 shooting, she had a clutch jumper with 1:18 to play for a 45-40 lead.
Ny’ceara Pryor scored 12 points with seven rebounds, seven steals and four assists for Sacred Heart, but it was a struggle for the sophomore who is the two-time Northeast Conference player of the year and tournament MVP. Pryor was 3 of 19 from the field. Sierra Johnson added 10 points.
Sacred Heart put up 23 more shots by forcing 10 more turnovers and getting 10 more offensive rebounds but the Blue Hose, despite going 1 of 11 behind the arc, shot 40%. In addition to making 16 of 40 shots they were also 16 of 19 from the foul line compared to 7 of 10 for Sacred Heart.
VANDERBILT 72, COLUMBIA 68>> Iyana Moore scored 22 points, Sacha Washington had a double-double and Vanderbilt celebrated its return to the NCAA Tournament with a 72-68 win over Columbia in a battle of 12-seeds in the First Four on Wednesday night in Blacksburg, Va.
The Commodores (239), who are in their 28th NCAA Tournament but first since 2014, face fifthseeded Baylor on Friday.
Washington had 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting and 15 rebounds for Vanderbilt. Khamil Pierre added 11 points for Vanderbilt and Justine Pissott had 10.
Moore delivered the big shot, hitting a 3-pointer that made it 69-62 with 24.4 seconds to play but the win wasn’t secure until Pissott made two free throws with 2.3 seconds left.