CARROLLTON, Ga. (February 8, 2025) – For the second straight game, North Alabama led an opponent wire-to-wire on the road, as the Lions renewed a classic rivalry with former Gulf South Conference member West Georgia on Saturday and dominated for a 78-61 win in Carrollton, Ga.
With today's win, UNA clinched a spot in the 2025 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, which is still a month away. Lipscomb also clinched with a win over Queens today. Both UNA and Lipscomb lead the ASUN standings with a 9-3 record.
North Alabama has won six of the last seven games and improves to 17-8 overall this season. West Georgia, who is in its first season as a Division I member, drops to 4-21 overall and 2-10 in the ASUN to sit in 11th place.
Today marked the fifth game of the season where UNA led wire-to-wire, turning a 2-0 lead into a 14-4 lead by the first media timeout. The lead grew as high as 18 in the first half and 24 in the second half.
Redshirt sophomore
Corneilous Williams had his seventh double-double of the season and tied the Division I school record with 19 rebounds and 12 points. The single-game rebound record was last set by Emanuel Littles against Crowley's Ridge in 2020. The all-time record is 23 rebounds last set in 1974 by Coleman Crawford.
UNA had four double digit scorers, led for the second straight game by fifth-year senior
Will Soucie with 17 points. Junior guard
Jacari Lane nearly met his season average with 14 points, while junior forward
Donte Bacchus had another breakout game with 16 points over 19 minutes.
Lane added five assists for the second straight game. He has had at least four assists in six of the last seven games, including eight against North Florida — next week's opponent.
Kolten Griffin was the leading scorer for UWG with 17 points to match Soucie.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half: Both teams scored second chance points on their first possessions of the game, but UNA killed that trend after the first minute with a 12-2 run at the first media timeout. The Lions led by as many as 18 in the first half before coasting to a 35-24 lead. UNA shot an even 40 percent while limiting West Georgia to 29 percent. Both teams combined for just three triples, as UNA won the paint with a 26-8 scoring advantage. Seven Lions made the scorebook in the first half.
Second Half: UNA grew the lead as high as 24 points midway through the second half and coasted to victory. With a massive lead already in hand for UNA, both teams shot well in the second half with the Lions going 14-27 for 52 percent and the Wolves going 15-34 for 44.1 percent. The closest it got in the second half was 40-30 with 17:57 to go, but UNA later doubled that lead with a 20-6 run.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- The 19 rebounds for Corneilous Williams marked a new career-high for himself and new season-high and seven-year Division I high for UNA.
- Donte Bacchus matched his season-high of two triples, which he last did in back-to-back games against Wofford and Tennessee Tech.
- DarKaun King recorded his first career steal today against the Wolves.
- UNA won the boards 45-38 for its fourth-highest rebound total this season.
- The Lions once again had more steals than turnovers with six swipes and just five giveaways. The five turnovers tie the second-lowest this season behind the Central Arkansas game last Saturday with four.
- Today was the eighth-straight game where UNA had four players in double figures.
- Today was only the third game this season that UNA did not record a block. The others were Auburn and Jacksonville.
- UNA had a 44-34 advantage in the paint.
- The Wolves retain a 37-36 advantage in the all-time series. UNA will have a chance to tie the all-time series in 10 days at CB&S Bank Arena.
COMING UP NEXT
The Lions open a three-game home stand on Thursday, Feb. 13 against North Florida at 6 p.m.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
