CLINTON, Miss. - The University of West Alabama Men's Basketball team pulled out a nail biting, 62-61, win over the Mississippi College Choctaws on Thursday night.

A combination of a balanced offensive attack and vintage UWA (11-11, 7-9 GSC) defense was the formula for success for the Tigers on Thursday as they shot the ball well from the floor, shooting 50 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from three, while holding Mississippi College (7-15, 3-13 GSC) to 36.7 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from three.

"That was a gusty win," said head coach Nick Woodruff. "The hardest part about playing Mississippi College is holding (Rashad) Bolden under his average and we were able to do that tonight. We had a good game plan in place that the guys executed and Charles Fofanah really did a good job on him."

After scoring 22 and 17 points in his last two games, Jaylen Lemons came out firing as the senior scored 10 of West Alabama's first 14 points, leading the Tigers to a 14-6 lead to begin. While Lemons got UWA going to start, the story of the first half was West Alabama's defense. The Tigers' stifled the second leading scorer in the country, Rashad Bolden, holding him to four points on 2-10 shooting in the period. With Bolden struggling from the floor, the Choctaws couldn't find any source of offense as West Alabama held MC to 21 points on 29 percent shooting to take a 34-21 lead into halftime.

While holding Mississippi College to under 30 percent shooting, UWA shot 48 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from three in the half.

The Choctaws flipped the script on the Tigers in the second half as MC went on a 10-0 run to begin the period, cutting UWA's lead down to three. Thaddeus Williams halted Mississippi College's momentum for a moment with a three-point play until a three from Ty Briscoe jumpstarted a 10-3 MC run to give the Choctaws their first lead of the night at 41-40. With 9:46 left to play, West Alabama's Dadrevius Weathers gave the Tigers a much needed jolt as the junior forward threw down two emphatic dunks over the next couple of minutes to put West Alabama back out in front by seven. UWA held their seven point lead with 2:15 left to play before a pair of free throws from Bolden and Briscoe coupled with a three from Odis Carter quickly cut the Tigers lead back down to two with 1:19 left. Moments later, Travion McCray went 1-2 at the free throw line, giving the Choctaws a chance to tie, in which they did, as Bolden converted on a three-point play with 30 seconds remaining. All tied at 61, Williams got fouled and split his trip to line which gave Mississippi College a chance to win the game but the Tigers held on as MC's Tremaine Dixon missed a potential game-winning layup with two seconds remaining.

Williams, Tulip, and Lemons scored in double figures for West Alabama while Weathers registered 11 rebounds, eight points, four blocks, and two steals.

UWA will close out their Mississippi road trip on Saturday when they play the Delta State Statesmen in Cleveland at 4:00 p.m.