It was a moment Jacari Lane had dreamt of since he was a kid.

After a dominant 90-64 win over Austin Peay in the ASUN Conference tournament quarterfinals, the Huntsville native was given the opportunity to put the team’s sticker on the winning side of the bracket.

“For me to have that moment, for my teammates to give me that moment? Man, it felt amazing to me,” Lane said.

It was a well-deserved reward for Lane, whose dominant 31-point performance helped the Lions complete a rout of Austin Peay on Monday to advance to the ASUN Conference tournament semifinals.

No. 2-seeded UNA will host No. 4 Jacksonville on Thursday at 6 p.m.

How long did it take to predict that kind of night for Lane?

“The first shot,” head coach Tony Pujol said of Lane’s performance. “You could tell he had that balance as soon as he hit the first one. I want to say it was Ben Ray, he and I were walking, and Ben mentioned that ‘Man, Jakari looked so confident after that first shot.’ Do you know why he’s confident? Because he’s put in the work.”

Lane’s night saw him shoot 9-for-13 from the field and 7-for-8 from beyond the arc, also knocking down all six free throw attempts in the lopsided victory.

A back-and-forth beginning saw UNA eventually break out on a 15-2 run with blistering shooting from the field; the team made five of its first seven shots from 3-point range, with Lane already having double figures seven minutes into the game.

“I was feeling really good,” Lane said. “I feel like it all came down to my shootaround. In, shoot around, I had a great shootaround. Shots were feeling good. It all came down to me just going out there, playing with confidence, shooting the ball with confidence, and it led to that success tonight.”

While it was just a point shy of his career-high mark (32 points against Samford), it was more than enough for hi and the rest of the team in a dominant showing.

Donte Bacchus shined off the bench with 16 points and 5 rebounds, while Corneilous Williams had 14 of each for another double-double in the win and Taye Fields (12 points) and Daniel Ortiz (10 points) also scored in double figures.

“One thing I can tell you about working with younger guys, is their focus, right? Neil’s one that has come in, and everything we ask him to do, he does,” Pujol said of the redshirt sophomore. “Our job now as coaches is to continue to make sure that he understands, ‘Hey, listen, this is what’s needed from you, from your team, lock in, stay focused, and just make sure you’re bringing that,’ and man, he’s been doing it all year.”

Pujol credits the team’s efficiency in the win with being able to wear teams down, especially in the second half of the victory; he noted the Govs’ Issac Haney — who averaged 13.4 points per game this year — as a threat on offense that his Lions shut down.

“You’ve got a lot of good players over there,” the coach said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for Haney. I’ve been dealing with him for the last two years. Man, I told him after the game ‘You’re a problem, you’re so hard to guard. All their players. LJ, does this the same way. It’s just a hard matchup, but I think our guys found a way.

“They really dug down and they did a great job of taking them out of their action.”

The true highlight everyone involved was a reported sellout crowd of 3,000, which celebrated the victory on the court with the players after the win.

Austin Peay returned 256 of its ticket allotment of 300, which North Alabama sold to fans within two hours.

“I drove past the gym, and I saw everybody at the door, and I’m like, ‘Golly, this is gonna be a big game.’ Like Jacari said, it’s been packed, but like, packed all the way out, all the way up through the whole gym? It was crazy,” Williams said. “The atmosphere was good, and like Jacari said, we need y’all to come back out Thursday if y’all can come support again.”

“Some of the students had to pay to come out and watch the game, and they’re still dedicated to come to watch us. They paid the money and came and watched the game, so it was only right for us to come out there and have fun with the crowd and invite them back to Thursday’s game.”

It was another moment of bliss for Lane, who stayed on the floor and celebrated with fans after his ESPN+ interview, which was crashed by his teammates.

“I was just so excited,” he said. “I couldn’t stop smiling, because the love that we just felt out there, just the thing that we built like I always say, I’ve been here since day one, so I’ve been watching this program just build and build. It wasn’t like this last year or the year before last. For us to just be able to have a crowd like that and show unbelievable love, it definitely feels good to us.”

Pujol credited a lot for the excellent crowd support on Monday, but noted that UNA’s softball team showing up to basketball games was key in starting the support between every team on campus.

“I’m very thankful for the people that put it together, very thankful for the community for coming out, very thankful for the student body and the student section. I thought that was amazing. They were telling me they were there early, so to me, I just love the way that this community, this university, has embraced this group.

“Man, they work their tails off, and as you can see, I told them back in June, we planted the seeds. Now here we are in March, and there the harvest is starting to come in, right? So what we got to make sure we’re doing right now is to continue to grow.”