HUNTSVILLE | The second-seeded University of Alabama in Huntsville men's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the 2017 VisitSpaceCoast.com Gulf South Conference Men's Basketball Championships by knocking off seventh-seeded Union 85-73 on Super Tuesday at Kelly Court at Spragins Hall. The Chargers improve to 22-7 on the year, while Union ends the season at 14-15.
 
Next Time Out
-The Chargers will next take on No. 3 seed Delta State on the campus of Samford University on Birmingham on Saturday night. Tip-off is slated for 7:15 p.m. at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Turning Point
-A 10-0 run over nearly three and a half minutes near the midway point of the second half turned a deadlocked contest in a 10-point lead for the Chargers, and the home team would not trail again the rest of the way. Justin Ward keyed the spurt as he scored eight points during the stretch.
 
Inside the Box Score
-Troy Saxton was terrific for the Chargers in the game as he scored 21, grabbed eight rebounds, dished out six assists and collected three steals.
-Saxton was one of five players who scored in double figures on the night for UAH as Seab Webster was 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and scored 16, while Brandon Roberts added 14.
-Strong off the bench for the home side, Chayse Elliott ended with 13, and Ward finished the night with 11.
-Charlie Wilson scored 24 to lead the Bulldogs, while a strong defensive effort from Michael Gilmore held Union's Tray Boyd – the GSC Freshman of the Year who averaged nearly 16 points per game – to just 11.
-The Chargers shot 55.4 percent in the contest compared to a 46.7 percent shooting mark for the Bulldogs, and the rebounding battle was won by Union who grabbed 33 to UAH's 30.
-UAH's reserves outscored Union's bench by a 25-11 clip, and the Chargers – who limited themselves to just eight giveaways – scored 16 points off Union's 14 turnovers.
 
Inside the Flow
­-The Bulldogs jumped out to a 17-11 lead by the 14:50 mark of the opening period, and though the Chargers would narrow the gap to one at 20-19 with 9:14 on the clock, Union would score nine of the next 14 points to go back up by five with a 29-24 lead at the 6:52 mark.
-UAH then ripped off a 10-2 run over the next 2:39 to go up 34-31 with 4:13 left until the half, and after two ties and a pair of lead changes, the Chargers would go into the locker room at the half up 42-39.
-The home team would push the advantage out to as many as five points on three different occasions in the early minutes of the second half, but Union would eventually pull back into a tie twice including at 54-54 with 12:41 left in the game.
-At that point, the Chargers delighted the loud Spragins Hall crowd by going on a 10-0 run to push the advantage into double figures for the first time, and though the visitors would pull back to within two with under six minutes to go, a 9-1 run punctuated by a Webster triple put the Chargers back up by 10 at 76-66 with 3:04 remaining.
-After a Bulldog triple made it a seven-point game, UAH would score nine of the final 13 points in the game including eight from Saxton in the last two minutes to seal the contest.
 
Noteworthy
-The 21-point performance by Saxton marks a new career-high for the senior who had scored 20 twice earlier this year – at Valdosta State on Jan. 2 and against Saint Leo on the season's opening day.
-UAH is now 17-14 overall in the GSC tournament, and the team will be making its ninth overall appearance in the semifinals. Additionally, the trip to the next round will mark the seventh to the semis in the past eight years.
-Saturday's contest against Delta State is a rematch of last year's semifinal game which UAH won 87-71.