Final Box Score

CLEVELAND, Miss. – The University of West Alabama men’s basketball team didn’t open 2007 half of the schedule as they would have hoped, as the Tigers fell to Delta State, 67-56, at Sillers Coliseum on Wednesday evening.

UWA (5-8) was led by 16 points from Stan Gill with 14 points coming from Patrick Winters. Gill also led the Tigers on the glass with eight rebounds in the contest.

DSU (10-2) posted three players in double figures, led by 22 points from Turmaine Rice. Marlon McCoy supplied 13 points, while Derrick White added 12 points. McCoy led the Statesmen pulling down seven rebounds.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well in the second half, but we had a shot with six minutes to go in the game,” UWA head coach Rick Reedy said. “We had some mistakes down the stretch that hurt us.”

UWA, which had not seen action since December 9^th, shot just under 40-percent from the floor on the night, while DSU connected on 46.3-percent of its shots in the contest.

“The layoff put us in a hole,” Reedy said. “They didn’t have as big a layoff as we did and that hurt us.”

DSU opened the game with a 5-2 run, but two jumpers from Gill cut the Statesmen lead to one and then gave the Tigers their first lead of the game, 6-5, with 16:41 remaining in the first half.

A three-pointer from Josh Williams would put DSU back up by two, but a jumper from Willie Moore would tie the game back up, 8-8, between the two teams.

Rice would connect on a jumper, with 15:31 remaining in the opening stanza, to give DSU a 10-8 lead. The Statesmen would never trail again in the contest, pushing out to a 15-point lead before heading in at the intermission up 40-31.

UWA would chip away at the DSU deficit, getting as close as three points on several occasions, but not able to overtake the Statesmen.

West Alabama returns to action, Saturday, January 6, as the Tigers will host UAH in the nightcap of the GSC double-header. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.