CLINTON, Miss. - The University of West Alabama men's basketball team fell to the Choctaws of Mississippi College 66-44 inside A.E Wood Coliseum on Thursday night.  

Jaylen Lemons came out cooking for the Tigers behind the arc, scoring the visitors first six points from three, giving West Alabama the 6-4 lead less than two minutes into the action.  

Dekyre Fuller tied up the action with a nice turnaround jumper at the 17:05 mark.  

Kuran Garner pulled the Tigers back on top, 10-8, with his own turnaround jumper at the 15:24 mark.  

West Alabama would hold the lead into the first media timeout at 13:41, with the Choctaws going cold from the field for almost three minutes.  

Thaddeus Williams widened the gap out of the break with the first field goal for either team in almost three minutes, scoring the contests next five points to give West Alabama a 15-8 lead into the under-12 media.  

Cam Brown broke an almost six-minute Choctaw scoring drought with a driving layup to bring the contest back to within five, 15-10, with 10:20 left in the first stanza.  

The home team from Clinton picked up some steam from the field and from the charity stripe as Dekyre Fuller capped off an 10-0 run in a four-minute span to take the 18-15 lead

Despite Williams ending the double-digit run with a lay in to bring UWA back within one, Cam Brown was not having it, responding with a layup of his own to stretch the MC lead into the under-8 media.  

Lemons came back alive from outside the arc after his early game success, tying the contest back up at 20 with under five to go.  

Kuran Garner followed up a defensive stop on the Choctaws Rashad Bolden with a sweet floater to give the Tigers the 22-20 lead into the under-4 media.  

Rashad Bolden, the Gulf South Conference's leading scorer, scored his first four points of the ball game to take back the lead, 26-24, which would hold until the halftime horn. 

Garner opened the second half with a pair of hits from the charity stripe to tie the contest back up at 26. 

Bolden caught fire in response, knocking down ten straight points to open the half for the Choctaws to give them a 36-29 lead with 17:13 left in the contest.  

The visitors went scoreless from the field for almost four minutes going into the under-16 media, but Bolden picked up his third foul on a Lemons rebound before the break.  

MC stretched their lead to nine points with a Cam brown jumper with 14:03 left.  

Lemons got the Tigers back in the scoring column after a five-minute scoring drought to cut the lead to seven.  

Bolden followed suit to spoil UWA's small victory with another triple to put Mississippi College up by ten, 41-31, with 13 to go.  

West Alabama could find no answer for Choctaws star point guard as he stretched the lead to 14 with a pull-up jumper with 11:24 left.  

Lemons managed to stop the bleeding for the visitors with a mid-range jumper of his own to cut the lead to 12 at the under-12 media.  

After a Williams layup cut the MC lead to nine, four straight points from Fuller brought the lead up to a game high 13 with less than nine minutes remaining.  

West Alabama could not find their niche on offense in the final minutes of play, along with the second half explosion from Rashad Bolden, the visitors fell to the red-hot Choctaws 61-44.  

Mississippi College breaks an eight-game losing streak to West Alabama, its first win over UWA since 2019.  

Rashad Bolden led the home team's effort with an astounding 31-point performance to give MC the win on 11-for-22 shooting. Bolden also added eight rebounds and three assists, never coming off the court.  

Thaddeus Williams led the Tigers with 18 points on 7-for-15 shooting. Jaylen Lemons added 14 points. Terry Durham collected a team-high eight rebounds on the night.   

West Alabama falls to 14-8 overall and 11-7 in conference play. Mississippi College moves to 12-10 and 11-7. The Tigers and Choctaws are now tied for the fourth seed in the Gulf South Conference going into the final six contests of the regular season.  

West Alabama will take on Delta State in Cleveland, Mississippi this Saturday to close out their weekend road trip. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m.