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Justin Allison
Gabrielle Tancredi
60
West Ala. WA 24-7,16-4 Gulf South
82
Winner Embry-Riddle (FL) ERAU 23-9,13-6 Sunshine State
West Ala. WA
24-7,16-4 Gulf South
60
Final
82
Embry-Riddle (FL) ERAU
23-9,13-6 Sunshine State
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
West Ala. WA 32 28 60
Embry-Riddle (FL) ERAU 45 37 82

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Tigers End Season at NCAA South Regional

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – West Alabama clawed back from a 23-point deficit to cut Embry-Riddle's lead to three points in the second half, but the Eagles withstood the rally to post an 82-60 victory over the Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament at Rick Case Arena.  
 
The Tigers end a season where they won the Gulf South Conference regular season title with a 24-7 record. Embry-Riddle is 23-9 and will play Alabama Huntsville in round two on Sunday. The Chargers defeated Barry, 106-99, in Saturday's second game.
 
Embry-Riddle sprinted to a 30-7 lead in the first half and led 45-32 at the half before West Alabama fought its way back, cutting the Eagles' lead to 47-44 on a dunk by Calvin Finch with 15:52 left. A three pointer by Kavan Hill at the 14:45 mark in the second half cut Embry-Riddle's lead to 50-47. That was a close as West Alabama would get.
 
"We got down early, which makes it hard at this time of the year," UWA head coach Nick Woodruff said. "It got away from us but credit our guys for fighting back and cutting a big lead to three. We could have just rolled over, but we didn't."
 
By the final media timeout with 1:39 left in the game the Eagles had stretched their advantage to 79-60, due mainly to the Tigers missing 15-of-16 field goal attempts down the stretch.
 
"Embry-Riddle is a really good basketball team," Woodruff said. "We had our opportunities, but they just made more plays than we did."
 
West Alabama shot 32 percent (17-53) from the floor, 33 percent (10-30) from beyond the three-point line and 76 percent (16-21) from the free throw line. Embry-Riddle put together a 50 percent afternoon from the field (27-53), 41 percent from long range (7-17) and 80 percent (21-26) from the free throw line.
 
"We have a strong program, but we are still learning at the NCAA level," Embry-Riddle head coach Steve Ridder said. "To play the way we did today is special, but we are not there yet even though we took a historic step today.
 
"It started with our defense. We came out ready to play," Ridder said. "We knew we had to get off to a quick start and we did. When they fought back and cut it to three points we dug in."
 
Romeo Crouch scored 21 for Embry-Riddle to lead all scorers, followed by Elijah Williams with 16 and Malcolm Whitlow with 12. Jenkins led Eagle rebounders with eight.
 
Shardarrion Allen and Justin Allison led West Alabama with 15 points apiece. Robert Davis chipped in 10 points in his final game as a Tiger.
 
Allison collected 10 rebounds from his guard position to record his first double-double of the season and also surpassed the career 1,000 point mark, heading into next season with 1,009 points.
 
Embry-Riddle dominated the inside, outrebounding West Alabama, 40-28, and outscoring the Tigers 36-10 in the paint.
 
 
 
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