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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

LIVINGSTON – The University of Montevallo Falcons entered Saturday, Jan. 11’s contest looking to get back to their winning ways that they had during a 10-2 start to the season and 6-0 run to begin Gulf South Conference play.

That’s exactly what they did as the Falcons overcame back-to-back losses to defeat the West Alabama Tigers 83-73 on the road at Pruitt Hall.

Montevallo burst out of the gate and took a 9-2 lead off a Tyson Sexton 3-pointer before extending that lead to 12-4 off another big deep shot, this time from Camden Andrews.

However, West Alabama surged back, trimming the deficit with an 8-3 run before going up 18-17 with 12:12 remaining in the first half.

That lead proved to be short lived as Derek Moore grabbed the lead back for the Falcons ahead of the next media timeout. Moore also helped his team keep the lead for good, scoring seven points in a 12-0 Montevallo run before scoring five more to put his team up 41-26 late in the half.

The Tigers briefly responded with a 7-2 run to close the half, but the Falcons still went into the locker room with a commanding 43-33 lead.

West Alabama continued hitting shots in the opening minutes of the second half, but Moore remained the driving force for the Falcons. He scored seven more points ahead of the under-12 media timeout to extend the lead to 56-43 with 12:55 remaining.

Montevallo kept pulling away from there, using a 7-0 run by Jaylen Curry and Jay Gillespie to make the lead 15 before a Curry and-1 gave his team its largest lead of the night at 72-54.

While that 18-point lead wouldn’t last, the Tigers couldn’t claw their way back in the game even after making it a single-digit deficit with 22 seconds remaining. Brandon Fussell capped off the win with a pair of free throws to seal the 10-point victory.

Moore earned a career-high 28 points to lead the Falcons in the win and also secured five rebounds. Andrews and Curry each finished with 12 points on the night as Curry had eight rebounds and three assists while Andrews added five assists and four rebounds.

Gillespie finished with 11 points and five rebounds and Sexton and Fussell each had nine points and four rebounds. Fussell added four steals and four assists to his total as he contributed all around the floor.

With the victory, Montevallo is now 11-4 overall and 7-2 in conference play while West Alabama dropped to 9-7 for the year and 5-5 in the GSC.

The Falcons remained in third place in the GSC standings, one game behind the Valdosta State Blazers, who are 8-1.

A win and a Blazers loss would move Montevallo into second place, and coincidentally, the two square off in their next game on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Central State Bank Arena for the annual Pack the SAC Game.