LIVE STATS | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE VIDEO | NOTES
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Opening up its 19th season of Gulf South Conference play, the No. 13 UAH men's basketball team will hit the road to take on West Alabama on Thursday night at Pruitt Hall in Livingston, Ala. The contest between the Chargers (8-2) and UWA (2-9) is slated to begin at 7:30 p.m.
 
A season ago in league play the Chargers registered an 11-1 mark en route to capturing the East Division title for a second consecutive season.
 
The contest is the first for the Blue and White since a pair of victories against tough competition in Las Vegas at the Great Western Shootout before Christmas. Behind a 26-point showing from Josh Magette, the Chargers knocked off Central Washington 85-75, and the team defeated Western Washington 77-74 with Zane Campbell scoring 27 and Jaime Smith adding 20.
 
The 20-point performance moved Smith to the brink of history as he now needs just seven points to become the 11th player in program history with 1,000 career points.
 
Should the team-leader in scoring – he is averaging nearly 18 points per contest – complete the feat Thursday, he would join Magette in the club, and Campbell could potentially join the group in short order as he enters play this week with 920 points for his career.
 
In the all-time series with UWA, the Chargers hold a strong upper-hand with a 40-19 mark against the Tigers including an 84-71 victory in Livingston last season, and the last time UAH lost in the series was in the 2006-06 season as West Alabama claimed a 79-74 victory at the site of Thursday's contest.
 
UWA owns a 2-9 mark on the season, but the record does not tell the complete story for the squad as the team's schedule has been front-loaded with stiff tests including Oregon State, Morehead State, and Princeton. The Tigers are led in scoring by Jared Woolfolk who is averaging over 13 points per game, and the team recently saw the return of all-GSC performer Alquan Mendenhall who has totaled 27 points in his two games back.
 
Live stats and video for both games will be available at uwaathletics.com, and the contest will also be carried on 97.7 The Zone and at 977thezone.com.
 
Fans are encouraged to follow the Chargers on Facebook (facebook.com/uahchargers) and on Twitter (@uahchargers), and supporters of the Blue and White may sign up for text and e-mail updates at uahchargers.com.