Box Score PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Union University men's basketball team posted a 94-90 win at the University of West Florida Thursday evening. Union improved to 11-10 on the season and 7-8 in the Gulf South Conference. West Florida dropped to 3-16 overall and 2-11 in league play.
Union earned a five-point 81-76 win over West Florida at Union January 9 to sweep the season series. Tonight's win snapped a 3-game losing skid for the Bulldogs.
Union scored first on a layup from
Corieon Pearson and quickly jumped out to an 8-2 lead over the first three and a half minutes. Union led for most of the way in a first half that featured five ties and two lead changes. Union matched their largest lead of the half with a 40-34 advantage.
In the second half, pushed their lead out to double digits for the first time in the game as a 3-pointer from Pearson put Union up 50-40 with 17:20 to play in the game.
Union led by as many as 11 points three different times in the game and held the lead for all but one minute of play. The two brief second half leads for West Florida came 83-82 and again 86-84 with 2:44 left. However, Pearson scored 11 straight points for Union including 5-of-6 free throws and three field goals in the final 2:44.
AJ Roberts with a free throw with one second left was the only player to score for Union in the final 5:02 other than Pearson. Union closed out with the 94-90 final.
The teams exploded for a combined 110 points in the second half. Union's Pearson scored 17 of this team-high 27 points in the second half. While West Florida got second half outputs of 23 and 20 from Ellis Young and Nate Johnson respectively. Union shot 76 percent from the field in the second half, while West Florida was at 64 percent from the field.
Union was paced by Pearson's 27 points as he led five Union players in double figures.
Roy Bullock added 18 points and
Pedro Faller scored 17 points, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range.
Ashanti Day scored 14 points and Roberts added 11 points. Union shot 63 percent from the field for the game, including 46 percent (11-24) from long range, and 68 percent (15-22) from the free throw line.
West Florida was led by Johnson with a game-high 33 points, while Young added 30 points as the only Argo players in double figures. The Argos finished the game 54 percent from the field, 30 percent (3-10) from 3-point range, and 68 percent (15-22) from the free throw line.
Up next for Union will be the fourth of four straight road games Saturday at Valdosta State (Ga.) for a 7 p.m. central start time.
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