UWA men’s hoops beats UAH for first time in seven years
Published 10:55 am Wednesday, February 19, 2014
West Alabama defeated Alabama-Huntsville for the first time since 2006, 63-53, in Gulf South Conference action Tuesday in Pruitt Hall.
UWA extended its current win streak to five, and at 15-8 overall has the most single season wins since 1998. The Tigers improve to 12-5 in the GSC, ranked second. UAH falls to 13-11 and 9-8.
“This is a good win for our program,” said UWA head coach Mark Downey.
“When I take over a program I take pride in accomplishing things that haven’t been achieved in a long time. That is a personal goal of mine. Tonight’s crowd was great for our program. It’s great to see our fans getting excited about us. We just need people to continue to come out and support us.
“Tonight, we didn’t play well offensively. UAH is a smart group with a smart head coach and they defended us very well. Defensively though, we just locked down.”
Desmond Raymond led the Tiger offense with 19 points. Lleon Tillman posted his sixth double-double of the season with 15 boards and 13 points. Jarrell Byrd ended with 10 points.
The Tigers improved from shooting 29 percent (7-of-24) from the field in the first half to 52 percent (12-of-23) in the second. UAH, who entered the game averaging 77.1 points per game, was 19-of-58 combined from the field.
Seab Webster led the Chargers with 17 points, while Wayne Dedrick had 15.
With three regular season games remaining, West Alabama will travel to take on Lee in its final road game of the regular season. Tipp off is set for 8 p.m. in Cleveland, Tenn.
“Thursday will be a grind for us,” Downey said. “We are coming off a big win and it will test us. We will need to continue to mature and find a way to win.”
The game can be heard on ESPN 104.9 and ESPN1049.com.