Grambling Upsets Vanderbilt In Thriller

Down three starters and on the road, the Grambling Tigers managed to pulled off the upset in Nashville.

It went down to the wire in Nashville, but Grambling State held on to a 64-62 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Grambling State Tigers head coach Donte' Jackson watches as his team faces the Arizona State Sun Devils at Desert Financial Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. Basketball Asu Mbb Grambling State At Arizona State; Credit: © Alex Gould/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Carte’are Gordon finished with a team-high 12 points and five rebounds, while Shawdarius Cowart finished with 11 points, including a couple of clutch free throws, five assists, and three steals. For Vanderbilt, Tyrin Lawrence finished with 15 points, one of four Vanderbilt players in double figures, and five rebounds.

Grambling started the game strong, opening the first half on a 10-0 run. Vanderbilt got on the board about five minutes into the game, and while the Commodores slowly cut the lead down to three by the end of the half, at no point did the Tigers surrender the lead. The score was 27-23 Grambling at halftime.

A quick 5-0 spurt in the second half gave the Commodores a lead, but the Tigers took it back at the 15:11 mark and wouldn’t surrender it again until late in the game when Liam Robbins gave Vanderbilt a 56-55 lead with 2:49 to go. Not only were the Tigers down, but foul trouble in the second half caught up to them as three starters, Jonathan Aku, Gordon, and Cameron Christion, all fouled out.

Christion was the last to foul out, and the subsequent free throws by Lawrence gave Vanderbilt a 60-57 lead with 1:58 to go. On the next possession, Cowart was able to draw a foul, sending him to the free-throw line, where he made both shots and cut the lead to one. Then after the ball was inbounded, an errant pass by Vanderbilt’s Trey Thomas was picked off by Cowart, giving the ball back to Grambling.

The Tigers took the ball out of bounds after a foul, and Malik Lamin was in a handoff action when both defenders ended up following the cutter, leaving Lamin for a wide-open dunk, giving Grambling a 61-60 lead.

The two teams traded free throws to make it 63-62. With 17 seconds in the game and 12 on the shot clock, Cowart missed the layup, but the offensive rebound was secured by Jourdan Smith, leading to another foul against Vanderbilt that put Grambling in the bonus. Smith split the free throws, but that was all the Tigers needed as they held on for a 64-62 victory.

Grambling became the first SWAC school to defeat Vanderbilt, which was previously 11-0 against the conference. It also gives the Tigers their second win against a Power 5 program, defeating Colorado 83-74 in early November.

With their record now standing at 6-3, the Tigers will have a week before their next game, a road game against Virginia Tech on Dec. 17, followed by Liberty and Wisconsin before returning home to take on North American on Dec. 29.

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