ROME, Ga. - The Montevallo Falcons picked up a must-win road game at Shorter University Friday, Feb 26 as they pulled out a close 66-63 victory fueled by James McNeil's career-high 23 points. UM is now guaranteed a spot in the Gulf South Conference tournament and await their potential matchup.
 
The Falcons built an early 17-8 lead but Shorter battled back in a back and forth half of basketball with multiple ties and lead changes. Xavier Malcom, Travarus Carroll and McNeil all had multiple buckets in the first half including several threes from Malcom and McNeil.
 
The Hawks took two late leads, but a layup from Carroll and a triple from Malcom tied it up 31-31 at the half.
 
Montevallo jumped out big again to start the half as Malcom hit a couple more treys and the Falcons built a 48-38 lead. From there McNeil scored seven points to help his squad keep Shorter at a safe distance. The shooting guard gave UM a 64-55 on a layup with 4:18 to go in the game, but the Hawks rallied again.
 
Up 64-61, Mason Shifflett and Shannon Woody made clutch steals to ice the win for the Falcons and guarantee a postseason bid.
 
Xavier Malcom scored 16 points shooting 4-10 from long range while Travarus Carroll scored 11 points and piled on a team and season high 15 rebounds and seven assists in the effort.
 
UP NEXT: UM will take on Shorter in the last game of the regular season Saturday, Feb 27 at 2 p.m.