MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Christian Brothers led from tap to buzzer to record its first Gulf South Conference win of the season, 56-51, over West Alabama Saturday at Canele Hall.

The victory improves the Lady Bucs to 4-11 overall and 1-6 in the GSC. West Alabama dropped its second straight league game on the road and fell to 8-7 and 3-4.

Christian Brothers employed a solid defense effort, forcing 10 Tigers turnovers and jumping out to a 28-22 lead by the half. UWA turned it over 17 times in the game and CBU took advantage of that, scoring 23 points off Tiger miscues.

“We tried to shorten the game and defend harder,” UWA head coach Craig Roden said, “but the one thing you can’t do when you re shortening the game is turn it over.

“Seventeen turnovers when you are shortening the game is like 25 in a normal game.” Roden said. “You can’t get away with that on the road.”

Breanna Ridgell scored 14 points in the first half and finished with 20 to lead CBU scoring. No other Christian Brothers player scored in double digits.

“Ridgell hurt us, but when we made our run Rikeyah McKinnon did a good job off the bench shutting her down,” Roden said. “Christian Brothers had been playing good basketball. In four of their six conference losses they had double digit leads and couldn’t finish.”

After trailing by as many as 14 midway through the first half, UWA climbed back into the game and cut the Lady Bucs advantage to 52-51 with 2:23 left. In the next two minutes UWA turned the ball over twice and missed three jumpers and CBU sealed the deal.

Nikkia Jordan scored 24 points for West Alabama to lead all scorers. Tamya Thompson followed with 14. Synthea Reed failed to score but collected a game-high 10 rebounds and blocked three shots.

West Alabama returns home to face Union on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.