HOMEWOOD, Ala. – In a rugged defensive battle the University of West Alabama pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and defeated the Lee University men 78-73 (OT) in the semifinal round of the Gulf South Conference Championship on Saturday evening at the Pete Hanna Center. The 2nd-seeded Tigers advance to face 4th-seeded West Georgia, an upset winner over top-seeded Alabama Huntsville earlier on Saturday.
Lee stands at 20-7 overall and will await the South Region pairings next week. West Alabama improved to 25-5.
The Flames shot 54% (14-of-26) in the opening half and enjoyed a 36-28 advantage. They also came out firing from beyond the arc, knocking down 5-of-11 triples (45%). That all changed in the second stanza where Lee made just 27% (7-of-24) shots from the field and was able to hit on 2-of-10 triples. The Tigers took advantage, making 45% overall (13-of-29) in the second half and marched to the charity stripe 20 times and connected on 18.
West Alabama only led a couple of times in regulation play but fought back to tie the contest at 61 to send the contest to an extra five minutes. Justin Allison played the role of hero for the Tigers, knocking down three key 3-pointers and hitting 6-of-6 free throws. The guard finished with a double-double, 17 points and 12 rebounds. Kuran Gardner also was a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe and led UWA with 21 points. Shardarrion Allen rounded out the double-figure scoring with 16 points.
Head Coach Bubba Smith was proud of the effort in the loss. "The margins are so small in these games. They fought their tales off today. But we got stops on the defensive end and couldn't corral the ball. The guys competed so hard yet we couldn't make the plays when we needed them. PJay had a great shot at the end of regulation and it just fell off the rim.The fight for the team has been awesome and hopefully we got another shot in Florida next week.
The Flames were led by Beyuan Hendricks who tallied 18 points and fought for 9 rebounds. Michael McGuirk had 15 points and 6 boards while Jayce Willingham totaled 12 points. The Flames shot 46% from the field (26-of-47) and made 8-of-22 triples (36%). They went to the free-throw line 16 times in the rugged battle and made 13. The Tigers won the rebounding battle 41-36. While Lee was guilty of 17 turnovers, they had just 9 assists. On the other hand, UWA had 15 assists compared to 9 floor mistakes.
