For the first time in three seasons, the Tuskegee University men's basketball team advanced past the opening round of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Basketball Tournament. Monday afternoon, the Golden Tigers rolled past Fort Valley State 74-60 inside Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham, Ala.

Gregg Boyd came off the bench to lead TU in scoring with a 19 point effort on 5-of-6 shooting from the filed, including two three-pointers.  Three other players scored in double figures with Kaleb Morton scoring 13 points in which 11 of his came in the first half while Myles Thomas chipped in 12 and Cam Grepke pouring in 10. Thomas also pulled down eight rebounds.

Skegee held its biggest lead of the first half when Thomas nailed a three pointer as time expired at the break, giving his team a 36-26 advantage at the break. The Golden Tigers had no problem putting the ball in the basket as they shot a sizzling 47 percent from the field, including seven total three pointers made.

FVSU opened the second half on an 8-0 run, cutting their deficit to only a basket at 36-34. Tuskegee started to pull away with 10:19 left to play after another three pointer by Thomas, a dunk by Jordan Gaines and a layup from Boyd, which increased TU's lead to 51-42.

Thomas gave skegee's its biggest lead of the entire game after a pair free throws with one minute left to play. As a unit, TU shot 86 percent from the charity stripe connecting on 23-of-30 attempts. Defensively Skegee clamped down on its opponent, holding them to only 20 percent from beyond the arc on 2-of-10 shooting.

The first round win is the school's first since the 2015-16 season when the Golden Tigers defeated Clark Atlanta 76-66.

TU will battle Miles College Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Live audio coverage starts at 3:00 from Birmingham on the Tuskegee Digital Network.