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FLORENCE, Ala. – The UWF men's basketball team suffered from a slow start but
Darryl Tucker's 16 second-half points led the Argos to a come-from-behind, 86-77 win at North Alabama on Thursday night.
Tucker led all players in points and rebounds, totaling 21 points and 11 boards on the night.
Rashaan Benson recorded a game-high eight assists to go along with 11 points, while
Jason Laatsch and
Moter Deng recorded 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Off the bench,
Bryan Chalifoux also contributed a career-high 11 points for UWF.
"Really proud of our second half. I thought we just gutted out another game," said UWF head coach
Jeff Burkhamer. "We had some guys just play really well. Tucker I thought played terrific in the second half, (Bryan) Chalifoux made some big shots in the second half and
Josh Laatsch comes off the bench and played really well. Jason (Laatsch) hit another couple big shots for us, again."
UWF entered halftime trailing by a 12 at 46-34. UNA built its lead behind a 55 percent shooting performance and Johnell Ginnie's game-high 14 first-half points.
The Argos then flipped the script against UNA, outscoring the Lions by a considerable 52-31 margin. The Argos shot a scorching 65 percent from the field in the second half and went 6-for-9 on three-point attempts. Tucker's 16 second-half points and Laatsch, who scored all 14 of his points in the last 20 minutes, paced the Argos in its second half run to help the team earn its sixth win in its last seven games.
UWF took its first lead of the second after a pair of converted Laatsch free throws at 57-56 with 10:45 left. The Argos outscored UNA 23-10 in the second half's first 9:15 to claim the lead.
UNA was able to gain another lead at 62-61 with 7:48 left, but Laatsch converted on a key three-point attempt to provide UWF with a 64-62 advantage. UWF did not relinquish that lead for the remainder of the contest.
Chalifoux played a primary role in preventing any chance of a last-minute UNA comeback, scoring eight of his 11 points with less than three minutes remaining.
"We didn't play well in the first half and I challenged them to play better. We made a couple of adjustments and the guys did a good job of making those adjustments in the second half," said Burkhamer.
UWF will make an hour-and-a-half drive from Florence to Huntsville to play Alabama Huntsville on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. UAH enters the contest as the No. 1 ranked team in the South Region.
For information on all UWF athletics, visit GoArgos.com.