Grambling State Won a 3 A.M. Thriller to Open the Season

The game tipped at 3 a.m. Eastern. By the time it ended, it was the best finish of opening night.

Grambling State beat Northern Illinois 89–87 on Monday at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center in South Carolina, in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon — a 24-hour run of games built to open the college basketball season. Both teams were playing their first game of the year. Almost nobody was awake for it. The ones who were got a classic.

The Miranda Game

Isaiah Miranda owned the night: 29 points in 22 minutes, on 10-of-12 shooting, with four three-pointers, eight rebounds and three blocks. Twenty of those points came before halftime, including a three in the final minute that sent Grambling into the break up 43–36.

Some context for how out of nowhere this was: NCAA.com noted that Miranda had scored 84 total points across three seasons at three different schools before Monday. He scored a career high before most of the country had breakfast.

Built a Lead, Nearly Gave It Back

Grambling never trailed. The Tigers shot 64 percent from the floor and bullied Northern Illinois inside, outscoring the Huskies 48–28 in the paint. The lead reached 12 twice in the second half — 62–50, then 65–53 — and the game looked like it would end the way it had gone all morning.

Northern Illinois had other plans. The Huskies hit 14 three-pointers and scored 51 points after halftime. David Douglas Jr. cut it to 67–65 with 7:06 left. Miranda answered with a three. Then Max Weisbrod buried one with 3:13 to play, and suddenly it was 78–77 — a one-point game, in the middle of the night, with a season opener on the line.

Decided at the Line, Saved at the Buzzer

Mekhi Fitts hit two free throws. Dwayne Pierce added a jumper and a dunk, and with 1:41 left Grambling was back up 85–79. It still wasn't over. Douglas hit another three. Fitts answered with a layup for 87–82 with 40 seconds left. Bennett Basich turned a fast break into a three-point play — 87–85, 33 seconds.

Then came the free-throw trade. Pierce split a pair with nine seconds left. Nino Carter-Smith made two for Northern Illinois with six seconds left: 88–87. Chancellor Perkins went to the line for Grambling with four seconds remaining and split his pair — one made, one missed, 89–87.

That left Northern Illinois one shot. Weisbrod got it — a 27-footer at the buzzer for the win. It missed. Antoine Shannon pulled down the rebound, and the Tigers had survived.

More Than One Man

Pierce finished with 19 points and eight assists. Isaiah Howard scored 13 off the bench, Fitts had 12 without missing a shot from the floor, and Shannon added 11 points and seven rebounds. Grambling's bench outscored Northern Illinois' 37–30.

The Huskies put five players in double figures, led by Trevor Polite's career-high 15. Weisbrod scored 11 with eight assists. The loss spoiled Matt Majkrzak's first game as a Division I head coach — Northern Illinois never led, and still nearly stole it at the horn.

This is Patrick Crarey's second season at Grambling, with a roster carrying 13 newcomers off a 14–19 year. The schedule stiffens fast: Texas on November 9, Kentucky on November 16. Whatever happens there, the Tigers' season started with a name. It is a good week for HBCU basketball to be making news — an NBA Hall of Famer just took the GM job at Alabama State — and Grambling opened it by winning the strangest tip time on the calendar.

The Sports Desk's read: A 3 a.m. tip is a gimmick until somebody plays like that in it. Miranda turned the marathon's deadest slot into his introduction — and Grambling walks into its Texas and Kentucky trips with a finisher the whole SWAC now has to game-plan for.