By T. Scott Boatright
DAYTON, Ohio —The Grambling State Tigers trailed by 14 points early in the second half of Wednesday night’s NCAA Tournament Play-in game against Montana State.
But that was all just fine for the G-Men and sophomore guard Jimel Cofer.
Cofer came off the bench and scored all 19 of his points —- a career high —- in the second half as Grambling State double-doubled up on history by officially earning an NCAA Tournament berth with a 89-81 win in overtime against Montana State.
The G-Men had already made history last weekend by earning a NCAA Play-In berth with their first Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament championship.
But the win over the Bobcats makes it official as the Tigers are now in the field of 64 as they prepare to take on Mid-East Bracket top-seeded Purdue on Friday night.
As they’ve done multiple times before this season, the Tigers found themselves trailing — this time 42-31 at halftime against the Bobcats.
But that’s how the GSU has tended to like it this season as the Tigers roared back to outscore Montana State 39-30 in the second half to push the game to overtime.
“This is what March is made of …. You’ve got to find a way to fight, stay in the game and make that one last run,” GSU coach Deonte Jackson said.
“We sucked it up, got after it and found a way to win. It wasn’t our first time figuring it out in the second half. But here’s the thing — there’s more work to do.”
A Cofer layup with 37 seconds remaining in regulation tied things up at 72-72, and Montana State prevented a buzzer jump shot by Tra’Michael Smith from finding the net to push the game into OT.
But another Smith dunk with 56 second in the extra stanza put GSU up by four points, and a Robert Ford 3-pointer with 18 seconds left put the game out of reach as the G-Men marched into history.
“It just knew my team had my back,” Cofer said of his performance. “Anyone on this team can get hot, and it was just my turn tonight.”
That was just about right, as Smith and Antwann Burnett added 18 points for the Tigers, who also got 10 points from Mikale Stevenson.
Robert Ford led Montana State with 26 points while Brian Garacke added 15 and Brandon Walker 14.
The Tigers outrebounded Montana State 41-27 which helped offset the Bobcats 13 three-pointers in the game.
GSU planned on making the two-hour bus ride to Indianapolis late Wednesday night to prepare for Friday’s game at 6:25 p.m.
That game will air live on TBS.
Jackson wasn’t thinking about celebrating after Wednesday’s win. His sole focus was getting ready for the Boilermakers.
“We’re going to get to our rooms, figure it out, start (looking at) film and get ready,” Jackson said. I.m just worried about how we can throw the whole house, the kitchen, the backyard, whatever we have to throw at them. We’ve just got to figure it out against one of the best coaches in the country (Purdue’s Matt Painter..I have a lot of respect for him.”
