LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The University of West Alabama men's basketball team rolled to an 87-66 victory over Union University in the home finale of the 2023-24 regular season on Saturday afternoon inside Pruitt Hall.
West Alabama improves to 17-9 and 14-8 in the Gulf South Conference, while Union drops to 12-14 and 9-13.
With two games remaining before the GSC Championship, the Tigers sit in a tie for fourth place with Christian Brothers, who lost at Alabama Huntsville.
It was all Union in the early going, with the Bulldogs getting out to an 11-4 lead with 12:37 left in the opening half, but the Tigers went to work from there, scoring eight of the next nine points to knot the game at 12. After
Kuran Garner converted a three-point play,
Tyler Talley's triple and
Terry Durham's hook shot evened the affair.
West Alabama would take the lead for the first time on a free throw by
Terry Durham and added on with back-to-back shots by
Thaddeus Williams.
After a Layne Sarver driving layup to end a near four-minute drought for the Bulldogs, the Tigers quickly restored order with back-to-back field goals off of Union turnovers.
Caleb McGill, following a steal, slammed down the fast break dunk to increase the lead to 10 with five minutes remaining.
Union did trim a 13-point lead down to six, 27-21, at the under-four media timeout. However, a fastbreak layup by McGill and a
Jaylen Lemons triple quickly put the UWA lead back to double digits with 90 seconds remaining.
Despite the field goal by Jordan Pyke late in the half, the Tigers took a 33-26 lead into the locker room.
West Alabama came out firing in the second half, swelling the lead to 17 on a three-point play by Durham with 14:20 left in the ballgame as the Tigers cruised to the victory.
UWA finished the game with 17 points off of Union's 13 turnovers, including 12 in the first half and added 28 fast break points.
Terry Durham led the Tigers with a double-double in 28 minutes off the bench, dropping 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting and adding a career-high 12 rebounds.
On the win today, Durham said, "It feels good coming off Thursday's loss. It took us time to get back together. Last game in Pruitt, we had to show out for our six seniors."
Tyler Talley also added a career-high 17 points off the bench thanks to five triples, while
Thaddeus Williams dropped 13 points and dished out three steals.
Jaylen Lemons and
Kuran Garner each scored 10 points in the win, while
Caleb McGill had nine points, six rebounds and three steals.
West Alabama will next hit the road for the last two games of the regular campaign. The Tigers will start at Valdosta State on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. CST.
