Grambling State beats Prairie View in SWAC quarterfinal

Mar 8, 2017, 03:34 pm

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas -- Ervin Mitchell scored 24 points, Remond Brown added 16, and Grambling State held off Prairie View 81-77 in Tuesday night's Southwestern Athletic Conference quarterfinal.

The fifth-seeded Tigers (14-19) on Friday will face top-seeded Texas Southern (21-11), which beat Alabama State (8-23) 87-72 on Tuesday.

Prairie View tied it three times in the second half, clawed back from seven points down, then tied it again at 70 on Tevin Bellinger's jumper with 4:37 left.

Avery Ugba hit a go-ahead free throw to spark an 8-3 run for a 78-73 Grambling lead, but Prairie View closed to 78-77 on Jett's free throw with 23 seconds to go. Chase Corimer scored two free throws and Ribeiro made one of two to seal it with six seconds left.

Ribeiro scored 10 points for the Tigers, who outscored the fourth-seeded Panthers 30-12 in the paint.

Bellinger and Troy Thompson combined for nine 3-pointers and scored 18 apiece for Prairie View (15-17).