SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – The University of Arkansas at Monticello men’s basketball team suffered a loss at the hands of Valdosta State in the Gulf South Conference Championship Tournament by a final score of 66-53.

 

The Weevils (20-9) still have a chance of advancing to the NCAA South Regional Tournament, which will be announced this Sunday, March 8 on the NCAA’s airing of the selection show on www.ncaa.com starting at 8 p.m.

 

If the Weevils do not qualify, the team finishes the 2008-09 as the seventh team in school history to win at least 20 games in a season.

 

In the loss to Valdosta State (23-5), senior Deron Brown led the team with 15 points after connecting on 6-of-13 shots, three of which were from three-point range. Junior Derek Easter and senior Bernard Seymour also reached double-digits with 11 points each.

 

The Weevils trailed by at least 10 points for the majority of the second half, but were able to trim the Valdosta State lead to five points on two different occasions.

 

“Give all the credit to Valdosta State,” said head coach Mike Newell. “They are a very good team who played very well against us today… We gave up way too many dribble drives for points and didn’t box out well. I thought our team played hard, but we didn’t do enough to win.”

 

Valdosta State was led by Ricardo Lewis and De’Andre Johnson with 13 points each. Tyrone Curnell scored 12 points and Christian Hunter scored 10 points.