ROME, Ga. – Having put themselves in a position to become threats in the Gulf South Conference during the final month of 2014, the Shorter men's and women's basketball team open the 2015 portion of their schedules eager to get the new year off to a good start when the Hawks and Lady Hawks host league foe West Alabama on Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop-King Centre.

The Lady Hawks, 6-6 overall and 2-4 in the GSC, tip off the doubleheader at 2 p.m. while the Hawks take the court carrying 8-4 and 3-3 marks at 4 p.m. The contests mark the start of a full GSC slate for the rest of the regular season and the first of two straight home clashes to begin the New Year with West Georgia coming to Rome on Monday night.

"We are looking forward to taking advantage of these two home games to get off to a good start after the Christmas break," Lady Hawks head coach Vic Mitchell said about seeing his team resume the season. "Everyone came back in pretty good shape, and I believe our team is excited about getting this second half of the season going."

Facing a West Alabama squad that also holds a 2-4 GSC record (5-5 overall), the Lady Hawks are led by senior guard Ieshia Alexander, who is averaging a team-high 15.5 points and 3.4 assists a game while Cynara Pitt is also averaging in double digits providing 10 points an outing.

The Lady Hawks have also developed a trinity of rebounders who have battled under the glass with Shaundrika Mann averaging 5.8 caroms and Pitt and Jackie Hudson pulling down 5.7 a game.

Yet as they head into their first meeting of the year with UWA, which is led by Britney McCloud (18.9 ppg), the Lady Hawks have been concentrating on becoming battle-ready defenders.

"Our emphasis has to be on playing better defense in the half court," said Mitchell, "so we have spent our time back (since the holiday break) mostly on the defensive end of the court."

The Hawks certainly want to regain the home court edge at the start of 2015, having won just one of four outings at WKC to start out the season, and remain in the mix of what has become a balanced start to the GSC standings as Shorter is one of eight teams within a game of each other.

"This league has been exactly what we thought it would be – very good," said Hawks head coach Chad Warner, whose team will be squaring off against a West Alabama squad that is also 3-3 in the conference and 8-6 overall after having downed non-conference foe Auburn-Montgomery on New Year's Day. "Everyone is beating each other at this point."

The Hawks closed out 2014 downing No. 20 Alabama-Huntsville only to be handed a four-point setback by North Alabama two days later, but have emerged as one of the best-shooting teams in the GSC – they lead the league hitting more than 50 percent of their shots from the floor – and boast one of the most potent outside-inside combinations in senior guard Dedric Ware and sophomore forward Jordan Jacks.

Ware leads the team averaging 19.5 points and 6.3 assists a game, while Jacks has a 17.3 scoring average – he's connected on nearly 60 percent of his shots – and leads the Hawks with 6.8 rebounds a game.

"We are right there and excited about earning the right to win games," Warner said. "What an opportunity we have in front of us!"