FLORENCE — North Alabama coach Terry Fowler had a message for Jessi Smith during the Lions’ Wednesday evening practice.

“I told Jessi that for us to be successful she had to play better,” Fowler said. “She had some back spasms early in the week and could hardly practice, but we needed her to step up.”

Smith did just that for the Lions on Thursday night. The senior guard hit three 3-pointers in the final minutes to spark UNA to a 58-51 victory over West Georgia.

The win broke a three-game Gulf South Conference losing streak for the Lions (12-8, 3-5 GSC).

West Georgia (8-11, 3-5) had led the entire second half until Smith got hot with just over five minutes remaining.

“This win is like a big weight being lifted off of us,” said Smith, who finished with 13 points. “This started the second half of conference play and we’re treating it like a new season. It’s a seven-game season now and we’re 1-0.”

UNA hurt itself with turnovers most of the game and trailed 43-38 when Smith got hot. Smith buried a trey from the corner to start a 9-0 spurt that put UNA ahead for good.

Dana Jackson added a 3-pointer from the corner to put the Lions up 44-43. Smith then nailed another trey from the same spot to make it 47-43 with 3:05 remaining.

“I had missed some shots earlier in the half, but you have to have a shooter’s mentality and believe that the next one will go in,” Smith said. “Nichelle (Fillmore) did a good job kicking the ball out to me and I couldn’t hesitate. At that point we had the emotion behind us and were able to pull away.”

Jasmine Horne led UNA with 15 points. Shaunice Hardy paced the Wolves with 19 points.

UNA shot 47.8 percent from the field in the first half, but committed 13 turnovers. The Lions trailed 32-26 in the final seconds before Horne was fouled while launching a desperation shot from beyond midcourt. Horne made all three free throws to cut the margin to 32-29 at halftime.

“The free throws at the end of the half were huge,” Fowler said. “We just turned it over too much in the first half and gave them easy baskets.

“We really needed a win badly. Hopefully this will give us some confidence for the rest of the season.”

UNA will host West Alabama on Saturday afternoon.

Jeff McIntyre can be reached at 256-740-5737 or jeff.mcintyre@TimesDaily.com.