LIVINGSTON, Ala. - The University of West Alabama men's basketball team hit 14 3-pointers in a routing of Shorter University 81-55, Saturday afternoon in Pruitt Hall.
West Alabama came out of the gate swinging as the home team took the early 7-0 lead capped off by a lay-in from Terry Durham at the 16:43 mark.
Shorter missed its first five attempts from the field, only capitalizing on their first shot at the 14:45 mark as Landon Tillman put up a nice floater in the paint to make it a 10-3 contest.
Jaylen Lemons stretched the UWA lead back to ten with a triple with just over 13 to go in the first stanza.
The threes fell abundantly for West Alabama after the under-12 media as Thaddeus Williams and Lemons combined for 12 points over a two-minute stretch.
Ricky Knight brought the Hawks back within ten after the Tigers' hot hands from three stretched the lead to 12.
Shorter would go almost four minutes without making a bucket as Garner and Lemons led an 8-0 run to take a 33-16 lead with 5:11 remaining in the first half.
Brent Bowman would get the Hawks back on the board with a triple only 13 seconds later to bring the visitors back within 15.
West Alabama would outscore Shorter 6-3 in the final three minutes of the stanza to take a 17-point lead into the locker room..
Jaylen Lemons opened the second half with back-to-back 3-point makes to stretch the lead to 22.
Despite a great effort from Micah Hodges to pull back into the contest with five quick points of his own, Williams stretched the lead back to 20 with 12:59 left in the contest as the Tigers cruised to a 26-point win.
"Super proud of the guys for playing hard and playing great ball after a heartbreaking loss to Lee. We needed this one," said Head Coach Nick Woodruff post-game.
The Hawks, who averaged 79% from the charity stripe coming into the matchup, made only 10-of-26 attempts from the line tonight, their worst outing of the season.
Jaylen Lemons led the Tigers in scoring with 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting including five triples. Kuran Garner added 14 points and seven boards. Thaddeus Wiliams added 13 points along with four assists. CJ Melton came up a rebound short of a double-double with 12 points and nine boards.
Landon Tillman led the Hawks in scoring with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting.
West Alabama moves up to 14-7 and 11-6 in conference play, while Shorter falls to 3-18 and 1-16.
The Tigers will head to Mississippi this Thursday, Feb. 8, as UWA will take on Mississippi College in Clinton. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
