UWA and VSU Meet for Third Time Saturday Night

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.– The West Alabama Men's Basketball team is in the NCAA Tournament in the South Regional for the first time since 2015, but the Tigers are surrounded by familiar opponents and have one come Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. CDT in Rick Case Arena on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in the Valdosta State Blazers.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN 104.9 with Nicholas Finch on the call. Live video will be provided and can be found here.

UWA (22-7) and VSU (24-6) both finished the regular season 16-4 in the Gulf South Conference to earn a share of the regular season title. However, the Blazers won both meetings during the year with a 19-point comeback to win 75-72 at the buzzer by a three by Beau Justice on Jan. 5 in Valdosta, Georgia and then VSU snapped the Tigers' 11-game winning streak with a 67-54 win in Livingston.

Other familiar opponents in the regional include Florida Southern, Alabama-Huntsville, Delta State and Miles College. The Tigers posted a combined 5-4 record against this weekend's participants.

West Alabama is led by First Team All-Conference and Second Team All-Region guard LaJuan Hardy. In his first season in Livingston, Hardy has taken command of the UWA offense averaging 13.5 points, 5.4 assists (second in the league), 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals while leading the team and the league in minutes played per game at 38.5 minutes per contest.

Ricky Dunnaway leads the team averaging 6.5 rebounds per contest with DeAndre Harper right behind him at 6.1 boards per contest.

Charles Tripp has gotten hot as the season has progressed. The senior from Demopolis, Alabama is averaging 16.3 points and four rebounds per game over the last four games for UWA including a 17-point outing last time out against the Blazers. Tripp was named to the GSC All-Tournament team after averaging 21.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.5 blocks during the Tigers two games in the tournament.

VSU is led by Beau Justice who averages 21.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists a game. Clay Guillozet is averaging 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds on the season but averaged 19 points and 9.5 rebounds against UWA. Winston Morgan is at 12.7 points a game (15.5 against the Tigers) followed by Bryce Smith at 10.3 points and Darrell Jones at 10.1 points a game.

The winner of this matchup will go on to face the winner of the game between the host and #1 seed Nova Southeastern Sharks and #8 Seed Miles Golden Bears which takes place at 5 p.m. Nova boats the second-best offense in NCAA Division II averaging 98.2 points a game. Miles only allows 55.9 points a game and is the best scoring defense in the country.

Tomorrow's South Regional will start with #3 Seed Lynn vs. #6 Seed UAH at 12 p.m. followed by #2 seed Florida Southern and #7 Delta State in a matchup of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament winner and the GSC Tournament winner at 5 p.m.

For a link to the NCAA South Regional Tournament page, click here.

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Players Mentioned

#15 Deandre Harper: F; 6' 7"; Junior

#24 Charles Tripp: F; 6' 8"; Senior

#23 Ricky Dunnaway: F; 6' 8"; Junior

#1 LaJuan Hardy: G; 5' 11"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#15 Deandre Harper
: 6' 7"; Junior
: F

#24 Charles Tripp
: 6' 8"; Senior
: F

#23 Ricky Dunnaway
: 6' 8"; Junior
: F

#1 LaJuan Hardy
: 5' 11"; Junior
: G