LIVINGSTON – Alex Strickland’s jumper in the paint with 5.8 seconds left lifted Montevallo to a 59-58 women’s basketball victory over West Alabama at Pruitt Hall on the UWA campus Saturday.

The victory improves Montevallo to 5-4. West Alabama’s first home loss of the season drops the Tigers to 4-5.

Montevallo led 30-21 at the half, one of two nine-point leads by the Falcons in the game. UWA bounced back from a 32 percent shooting performance in the first half to take a 52-50 lead with 5:22 left to play.

“We didn’t shoot or rebound well in the first half, but we kept ourselves in the game by guarding people pretty well,” UWA head coach Craig Roden said. “Our play on defense brought us back from being down nine on two different occasions.”

The Falcons responded by going up 56-52 with 2:38 left before Jamie Gunter’s runner and a jumper by Tiarra Pritchett with 51 seconds left gave West Alabama a 58-57 advantage.

Synthea Reed missed a pair of free throws that may have put the game away for the Tigers with 22.8 seconds to play. UWA made just two of eight free throw attempts in the last 4:27 of the game and converted only 12-of-22 (54%) for the game.

“We got the stops we needed and then couldn’t convert on the other end,” Roden said. “We didn’t convert free throws when we really needed them down the stretch.”

Alexsis Brown and Taylor Beverly scored 15 points each to led Montevallo scoring. Trena Moore-Smith chipped in 10 points and Beverly collected a game-high 12 rebounds.

Brittany Weathers scored 25 points for West Alabama to lead all scorers. Gunter was the only other Tiger in double figures with 12. Reed collected nine rebounds and blocked four shots for UWA.

The Tigers take the week off final exams and head to Selma University on Dec. 17. Montevallo is host to Columbus State on Dec. 15.