Box Score LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's basketball team took a 63-56 non-conference road loss to the University of West Alabama (UWA) Tigers on Saturday evening at Pruitt Hall.
 
The Tigers (2-1) burst out to a 22-12 lead with 8:42 left in the 1^st half and maintained that advantage at 27-17 with 4:50 remaining. By the final media timeout at 2:23 the bulge had expanded to 30-17 and three Tiger free throws were followed by two Badger free throws from Walter Massey to make it 33-19. Jake Jobling of UWA popped a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to send the teams into the locker rooms with a 36-19 Tiger lead on the board.
 
UWA opened the 2^nd half with a fast break dunk off a perimeter steal, but Massey answered with a jumper from the top of the key to keep the Badgers within reach at 40-25 with 16:03 to play. Later, a 3-pointer by Massey was followed by a Badger steal that resulted in a 1-of-2 trip to the line for William Loyd to make it 42-29 UWA at 13:43.
 
By the 10:24 mark, the Badgers had whittled down the UWA lead to 43-31 and a Chase Shellman put-back basket made it 44-33 with 8:27 showing. Just one minute later UWA regained a 47-33 cushion off two free throws, but a Massey free throw and a Brandon Fischer jumper from up top pulled SHC to within 47-36 with six minutes to go in the game.
 
Over the next five minutes SHC rallied to pull within 58-51 at 54.3 seconds left and 59-53 at 30.3, but the Tigers would sink 6-of-8 final free throws to keep the Badgers at arm's length.
 
Massey paced the Badgers with 14 points while Fischer contributed 12 points to the SHC cause. The Badgers out-rebounded UWA 38-33, but lost 13 turnovers to four Tiger steals and shot just 64.3% (18-28) from the free throw line. Spring Hill shot the ball at a 31.5% (17-54) rate overall and was 21.1% (4-19) from 3-point range
 
Jobling put 20 points in the baskets to lead all scorers as four Tiger players broke into double-digit scoring. UWA lost 14 turnovers to five Badger steals, but shot 40% (18-45) overall including 20% (3-15) from behind the 3-point line.
 
The Badgers (0-5) will next visit Pensacola, Fla., on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. as they take on the University of West Florida Argonauts (2-0) to a non-conference game at the UWF Field House.