Box Score
NICEVILLE, Fla. – The third-ranked University of Alabama in Huntsville men's basketball team advanced to the Gulf South Conference Tournament semifinals as the top-seeded Chargers defeated the No. 8 seed Delta State by a 72-50 score on Friday night at The Arena on the campus of Northwest Florida State College. The Chargers improve to 24-3 on the year, while Delta's year ends at 6-21.
UAH will take on West Florida in the semifinals on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
Things started out slowly for the Blue and White as the team was shooting just 1-for-8 from the field at one point early on, but a 5-for-6 showing from the charity stripe in the early minutes kept the Chargers on top and allowed them to gain control as their shots started dropping with a bit more regularity later on in the opening stanza.
The Chargers ended up connecting on four of their seven 3-point attempts in the period including a pair by
Jaime Smith as he scored 13 of the team's last 15 points in the half.
Smith ended the half with 16, helping the Blue and White build up a 35-16 advantage at the halftime break.
The second half started out better for the regular season champions as they scored the first eight points of the period, and eventually built up their largest lead of the night at 52-25 near the midway point of the second half en route to the 22-point victory.
Zane Campbell was strong in the second half as he scored 10 of his 15 points in the period while joining Smith as the only two Chargers to reach double figures on the night. Smith finished with a game-high 18.
Providing a spark off the bench,
Conner Blasi finished as the game's leading rebounder as he grabbed nine on the night.
For the contest, the Charger shot 40.4 percent from the floor, but the team was solid from beyond the arc as it hit eight of its 14 attempted treys, and UAH was strong defensively as it held the Statesmen to shoot just 39.6 percent.
Narrowly winning the battle on the glass, UAH gathered 37 rebounds compared to 36 for Delta State.
