The men’s basketball team defeated Christian Brothers 79-73 to win their first Gulf South Conference Tournament in 18 years Sunday afternoon in Birmingham.

The Lions were led by the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Rashaun Claiborne, who put up 28 points and had eight rebounds for the game. He averaged 21.7 points per game while shooting a scorching 67 percent from the field.

“This means a lot because it’s my first championship,” Claiborne said. “I never won one in high school so this is big for me.”

The victory also gave head coach Bobby Champagne his first GSC tournament win.

“I’m just happy for our guys to win a conference championship and go to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years,” Champagne said.

After leading 39-26 at halftime, CBU cut UNA’s lead to two with less than two minutes left to cap off a 17-7 run by the Buccaneers. The Lions responded with a jumper from forward Bruce Adams and did not look back.

“(In the) first half I thought we did a great job of guarding them, other than keeping them off the glass,” Champagne said. “(In the) second half they did a really good job of getting open and knocking down shots.”

The Lions shot 50 percent from the floor for the game and made 25 free throws compared to the Buccaneers’ 13. This game marks the third time this season UNA has defeated CBU.

“Everybody thought we were going to run over them but we knew it wouldn’t be easy,” Claiborne said.

Guard Nathan Spehr and forward Jere Vucica had nine and eight points respectively. Guard Devin McNeal came off the bench to hit two first half three-pointers and finished with six points.

The Lions came into the conference tournament as a No. 3 seed and defeated the University of West Georgia 84-69 and Valdosta State University 88-79 to advance to the championship game.

“Everybody’s confidence is high,” Adams said. “Everybody (plans on) winning the GSC.”

UNA has continued their surge in the second half of the season by winning 12 of their last 13 games.

“We had expectations to win it all even when we did go through the slump at midseason,” Adams said.

With the win the Lions landed the No. 4 seed of the NCAA South Region tournament and will play Tampa in the opening round on Saturday in Lakeland, Fla. This will be the first time UNA has gone to the tournament in back-to-back years since 1995 and 1996.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better than this right now,” Adams said. “We’ll be locked in and ready to go for Saturday, for sure.”

The women’s basketball team beat Christian Brothers University 62-54 on Saturday in the first round of the tournament. They ultimately fell to Delta State University on Sunday with a final score of 66-58, ending their season.