Head coach Joseph Price and his revamped Tigers debuted their season on the road with three-straight blow out defeats.
On Friday the Tigers lost to Cleveland State 92-49, on Sunday dropped one to Ball State 78-51 and Tuesday fell short to Miami 80-54.
Despite the Tigers’ (0-3) early struggles, Terry Rose, the 6-foot-4-inch guard from Orlando, Fla. skills were on full display. As a freshman, Rose leads Grambling in scoring with an average of 19.3 points per game.
Against Miami (1-1), GSU’s last stop before retuning to Grambling, the he Red Hawks set a school record by collecting 22 steals against the G-Men.
“We were very careless with the ball, and Miami just had a tremendous press and talent and speed and quickness,” said Price. “We’ve got a lot of players that need to gain more confidence.”
Rose came out of halftime on fire, scoring the first 11 points, but did not score again. He tallied 20 points for the game.
“I thought our kids fought hard for three-fourths of the game,” said Price.
Four minutes into the second half, Grambling led 37-29. The Tigers’ slim lead vanished shortly after when the Red Hawks implemented their full court pressure defense, which resulted in a 27-0 run to make the score 56-37.
Grambling committed 32 turnovers in the game. Through three games, the Tigers have three players who have collected double-figure number for turnovers.
“Tonight was very difficult for us,” said Price.
Turnovers can be blamed for Friday’s loss against Cleveland State (2-1), the Tigers’ season opener. The Tigers gave up the ball 16 that converted to 18 points for CSU.
The Vikings started the game hounding Grambling with their full-court man-to-man defense. The Tigers’ first four possessions all resulted in give-aways. CSU’s point guard Charlie Lee took advantage by scoring five of the seven unanswered points. He finished with 20 points and seven assists to lead the Vikings.
The Vikings had contributions from six players, each collecting at least 10 points. Rose was the only player from Grambling in double figures with 16.
With only one day of rest, the Tigers traveled to Muncie, Ind. where they were outscored 30 to 10 inside the paint against Ball State (1-0).
Rose connected on six 3-pointers on his way to a season-high 22 points. Derron Hobbs dished out six assists.
The Tigers travel to Texas for two-game road trip against the University of Houston on Saturday and Texas Tech on Tuesday.