Carrollton, GA - The semifinal round of the 2015 VIsitSpaceCoast.com Gulf South Conference basketball tournament is set to commence on Friday evening, with a battle between two of the three regular season Tri-Champions in the late session, as 2nd-seed West Georgia takes on 3rd-seed West Alabama at 8:30 p.m. at the Pete Hanna Center on the campus of Samford University.

Today's Game
The West Georgia Wolves come into the semifinal round of the VisitSpaceCoast.com 2015 Gulf South Conference tournament with tremendous momentum, as the Wolves have won four straight and five of their last six heading into Friday's matchup. This will be the 62nd meeting all-time between West Georgia and UWA, with the Wolves holding a 38-24 advantage in the series. The two teams split in the regular season, with West Alabama winning 73-71 in Livingston and West Georgia taking an 83-77 victory in the regular season finale last week.

UWG Breakdown
The Wolves are not the biggest team in the Gulf South Conference, but West Georgia has won the rebounding battle in five of the last six games, including 46-28 against CBU on Tuesday. Emory Bernard led the charge against the Buccaneers with a double-double, his first of the year. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the game, but offensively, especially in the second half, Deonta Stocks stole the show. The sophomore had a game-high 18 points against CBU, including 14 in the second half when UWG pulled away by as many as 26 points.

A Dangerous Trio
Senior points guards Alex Abreu and Thomas HIgginbotham are an amazing 1-2 punch at the point for the Wolves. The pair have combined for 210 assists on the season, and Abreu alone has 124. He is in the top-50 in the country in assists per game and Higginbotham leads in the nation in assist-turnover ratio. Abreu and Stocks also are among the top four three-point shooters in the GSC in terms of shooting percentage.

Matchup to Watch
Share and share alike, that is the key for the West Georgia Wolves against the West Alabama Tigers. In the most recent meeting, the Wolves had five players in double-figures for the first time since the turn of the year. If UWG can share the ball effectively, things could go in the direction of the Wolves.

Stocks Named GSC Player of the Year
West Georgia has a long and storied history of basketball, featuring national champions and players of the year. Deonta Stocks joined that history on Monday, when he was named Gulf South Conference Player of the Year, becoming the eighth UWG player to earn that distinction.

Nation Leading
Senior Thomas Higginbotham seems determined to go out with a bang this season, as he comes into the 29th game of his senior year leading the nation in assist-turnover ratio. The Snellville native has 86 assists and 21 turnovers, a ratio of 4.09. He looks to become the second UWG athlete among all sports in the last two years to lead the nation in a single category. Last year, Nicole Yancey led the nation in walks for the UWG softball squad.

Abreu Named All-GSC
For the first time in this decade, UWG head coach Michael Cooney had two players named All-Gulf South Conference. In addition to being named GSC Player of the Year, Stocks was also First Team All-GSC. Alex Abreu, in his only season with the Wolves, made the most of his time, averaging 16.1 points per game thus far and dishing out 124 assists with a 4.4 assists per game average, which is good for fourth in the GSC this year.

Dortch makes a splash in return
The West Georgia Wolves had three home losses in the month of February that went a long way in making the difference between a regular season tri-championship and an outright title. There were several factors in those losses, which included a setback to Christian Brothers, but one of the biggest was Marcus Dortch, who was out with a hand injury. Dortch returned on Thursday, scoring 10 points in the Wolves' victory over UWA, including a pair of free-throws that sealed the win late. He was also big on Tuesday against CBU in his first GSC tournament game, scoring 13 for the Wolves.