Three UWA men make All-GSC team

BIRMINGHAM — Three West Alabama men’s basketball players have been named to the 2014 All-Gulf South Conference team. In a vote of league coaches, senior Desmond Raymond was voted to the first team, while senior Sandy Underwood and junior Jarell Byrd earned second team recognition.

Raymond, a native of New Orleans, La., ended the regular season as the Tigers leading scorer at 17.3 points per game, sixth in the GSC. He scored in double digits in 22 of the 26 games he’s played in, breaking the 20-point mark 10 times. He scored a career-high 29 points at Union on Jan. 25 and his 500th career point at home against West Florida on Feb. 8. He enters the postseason with 609 career points, 451 this season, and leads the team with 94 assists (3.6 per game) and 36 steals (1.4 per game).

Underwood, a preseason All-GSC selection, is UWA’s second-leading scorer with 16.6 points per game, eighth in the GSC. The Brent, Ala., native scored a team season-high 31 points at West Florida on Jan. 6, topping his previous career high of 29 against earlier this season. He has scored 810 career points in his two seasons as a Tiger.

Byrd, a native of Lynn, Mass., has made his presence known on both ends of the court in his first year at UWA. He is the Tigers’ second-leading rebounder with 168 total boards (6.5 per game) and fourth-leading scorer at 11.6 points per game. He is the eighth-leading rebounder in the GSC and is shooting 51 percent (114-of-222) from the field.

West Alabama opens play in the 2014 GSC Tournament Thursday at Pete Hannah Arena in Birmingham. The second seed, UWA will face seventh-seeded Valdosta State at 5:30 p.m.