HUNTSVILLE | It will be another rematch of a year ago on Sunday when the West Division No. 1 seed University of Alabama in Huntsville takes on the East Division No. 1 Valdosta State in the title game of the 2021 Gulf South Conference Men's Basketball Championship. Tip-off at Trustmark Arena on the campus of the University of Montevallo is set for 1 p.m.
 
To protect the health of the student-athletes, attendance on Sunday will be limited to a team pass list, and tickets will not be sold to the general public.
 
Last season the two teams met in the championship game in Birmingham, and the Chargers erased what was a 14-point deficit en route to winning the program's fourth tournament championship by a 91-82 score. JJ Kaplan had a double-double for the Chargers in the victory as he scored 15 and grabbed 10 rebounds.
 
UAH – who is 14-2 on the season – reached the final for a third straight season after gutting out a 54-52 victory over Lee on Friday night in the semifinals, thanks in part to a 16-point performance from the West Division Player of the Year Sam Orf.
 
Orf enters Sunday's contest as UAH's leading scorer with 17.5 points per contest which also is the fourth-best mark in the conference. In total, four Chargers are averaging double figures with JJ Kaplan scoring 12.7 per contest, Seth Swalve scoring at a 12.3 per game clip, and Max Shulman registering an average of 10.2 points per outing.
 
Valdosta State scored 63 points in the second half on Friday night to come from behind to defeat West Georgia 99-89 to secure its spot in Sunday's game. The Blazers are scoring a GSC-best 86.4 points per game and are led by Imoras Agee's 17.8 points per contest scoring average, and the team is riding a seven-game winning streak and own a 16-4 record.
 
UAH's last two tournament titles have come with wins over VSU in the championship game as the Chargers were 94-91 winners in 2017. In total, the program has won four titles, and Sunday will mark the program's ninth championship game appearance.
 
The winner of Sunday's game will earn the GSC's automatic bid to the NCAA South Regional which is slated to begin next weekend in Valdosta.