Men's Basketball | 2/18/2015 4:33:00 PM

INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA has released its first NCAA Division II South Region rankings for the 2015 season with the West Alabama men's basketball ranked No. 8 among the top 10 teams in the region.

The Tigers, who are currently riding their third four-game win streak this season, have already amassed the most single season wins since the 1997-98 season with an 18-9 overall record. With three regular season games left, UWA is tied for first place with Alabama Huntsville in the Gulf South Conference standings at 13-6 in the league.
The NCAA South Region rankings are used at the end of the regular season to determine seeding in the national tournament.

The No. 1 team in the nation, Florida Southern, leads the South Region with an overall record of 22-1, followed by fellow Sunshine State Conference school No. 4 Barry at 16-2. GSC opponents West Georgia, Alabama Huntsville and Union make up the third, fourth and fifth seats respectively.

Lynn, from the SSC, and Paine, out of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, sit ahead of the Tigers in sixth and seventh place, while fellow GSC representatives Christian Brothers and Shorter round out the list in ninth and 10^th place.

The top eight in the regional rankings make the NCAA tournament, though it is possible for less to qualify if an automatic berth is won by a team outside of the top eight. The automatic berths are granted to the champions of the three conference tournaments in the South Region – the GSC, the SSC, and the SIAC.

West Alabama will return to action Thursday as it travels to take on Valdosta State at 7 p.m. (CST) in Valdosta, Ga. The game is the first of three of a final road swing to close out the regular season, with the Tigers traveling to Pensacola, Fla. to face West Florida on Saturday before closing the season against West Georgia on Feb. 26^th in Carrollton, Ga.