HUNTSVILLE | The University of Alabama in Huntsville punched its ticket to its second consecutive VisitSpaceCoast.com GSC Men's Basketball Championships final on Friday night, blowing past Delta State 87-71 at the Pete Hanna Center on the campus of Samford University. UAH improves to 23-6, while DSU slips to 19-11.
 
The Chargers will now take on West Georgia at 4 p.m. on Saturday for the conference title, and the game will be carried on ESPN 3.
 
 Brandon Roberts scored 24 points on a 9-of-12 shooting night, and 22 of his points came in a stunning second half for the Chargers that saw the team shoot 70.8 percent in the period and outscore DSU 50-27.
 
Three other Chargers scored in double figures including Seab Webster who scored 16, and both Greg Gardner and Troy Saxton added 11. For good measure, Gardner added a team-best six rebounds while also dishing out seven assists.
 
UAH never led in the first half and trailed by as many as 13 points with just over two minutes to go in the period after Devin Schmidt scored two of his 37 points on the night, but the Chargers scored six straight in the closing moments to narrow the gap to just seven at 44-37 at the half.
 
After the Statesmen scored the first bucket of the second stanza, UAH continued its torrid ways and went on a 13-2 run that saw the tournament's top-seed grab its first lead of the night on a Roberts layup with 14:57 on the clock, and after DSU pulled back ahead by a pair near the midway point of the half, the Chargers would outscore the opposition 28-10 in the final 10 minutes of the game to secure the victory.
 
For the contest, UAH shot a blistering 63.8 percent while DSU connected on 46.0 percent of its attempts, and the Chargers finished the game with a 30-25 edge in rebounding.
 
The Blue and White scored an impressive 40 points in the paint while also logging 11 fast break points, and the team played a disciplined contest, being whistled for a season-low 12 personal fouls.
 
UAH took both contests from West Georgia this season, winning 94-84 at home back on Dec. 12 and claiming an 83-73 victory in Carrollton on Jan. 28. The meeting will be just the second between the two programs in the GSC tournament.