BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | A furious late push came up just short on Sunday afternoon as The University of Alabama in Huntsville men's basketball dropped a 64-60 decision to Delta State in the title game of the 2019 VisitSpaceCoast.com Gulf South Conference Men's Basketball Championship.
 
The Chargers are now 24-7 and will await word of their postseason fate as the NCAA will announce the eight-team field of the South Regional at 9:30 Sunday night.
 
DSU moves to 19-11 and earns the automatic qualifying berth into the national tournament.
 
The Statesmen went ahead by 10 with just 2:34 remaining in the contest, but the Chargers used a strong defensive effort to force a pair of turnovers while scoring six straight to cut their deficit to just four less than a minute later.
 
After a Delta State bucket ended the string of consecutive points for UAH, Seth Swalve had an immediate answer and scored two of his team-leading 13 points before UAH forced another turnover after which Swalve scored again to pull within two at 57-55 with just under a minute left.
 
The Statesmen then scored the next four points and allowed UAH to pull no closer than three in the waning moments.
 
Swalve's 13 were matched by JJ Kaplan who earned a place on the all-tournament team after he recorded his seventh double-double of the season with the 13 points to go along with 11 rebounds.
 
Max Shulman rounded out UAH's double-figure scorers as he knocked down three 3-pointers to score 11.
 
For the contest, DSU shot 46.2 percent compared to 40.7 percent for UAH, and the Chargers connected on just 30.8 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc.
 
After UAH held a 20-10 edge on the glass in a first half that saw the teams deadlocked at 24-24 on the scoreboard, Delta State ended up winning the rebounding margin by a 33-29 margin.