The Lions men’s basketball team fell short against UA-Huntsville 70-67 Feb. 24 in Flowers Hall.

UNA led 30-18 with 5:55 left in the first half, but a 15-6 run to end the half by the Chargers cut the Lions’ lead to 36-33.

Rashaun Claiborne hit a jump shot with 17:46 left in the game to put the Lions up 38-33. That was the largest lead UNA had in the second half.

Claiborne recorded a double-double as he scored 19 points and recorded 13 rebounds.

“Rashaun played well tonight,” said Bobby Champagne, head coach.

The Chargers surged back to lead 41-38, a lead they would only relinquish once the rest of the game.

The Lions did not let UA-Huntsville get up by more than six points.

“We played hard,” Champagne said. “We had a number of guys who shot well.”

The Lions cut the lead to 1 with 1:04 left in the game after DeAndre Hersey completed an old-fashioned 3-point play.

“We got back into it; we tied it up and did some good things,” Champagne said. “We missed some free throws but we did a great job to get back into it. Again, this one is on me.”

The referee called a foul on DeAndre Hersey with 24 seconds left, and Champagne argued the call.

UA-Huntsville inbounded the ball to Jaime Smith while Champagne continued to argue the call. Smith dribbled the ball down the sideline closest to the scorer’s table.

Marquel Darrington was called for a blocking foul as he was trying to cut Smith off at half court. Smith hit both free throws and put the Chargers up 68-65.

UA-Huntsville called a timeout with 20 seconds left.

During the timeout, Champagne came across half court attempting to talk to the officials about the two calls.

Having had enough, the referees called a technical on Champagne.

“I could not have made a spectacle of myself and gotten a technical there at the end,” Champagne said. “Our team played too hard for me to screw it up.”

Smith hit the two technical free throws to put the Chargers up 70-65.

“(The referees) were calling what they saw,” Champagne said.

The Lions could not recover, despite getting Nathan Spehr a good look for a three at the end of the game. The fans were making noise throughout the game, as they had a “white-out” in Flowers Hall.

“(The fans) have been great all year,” Champagne said.

With the win, the Chargers clinched the GSC regular season championship, while the Lions fell to third place behind Christian Brothers.

UNA will host West Georgia Feb. 28 before playing their final game of the regular season against West Alabama in Livingston.

The West Georgia game will be senior night, and the Lions look to send Keynan Jackson and DeAndrey Hersey out with a win.