Carrollton, GA - For the first time since February 12 in a win over Shorter, the West Georgia men's basketball team had five players score in double-figures, and it came on a big night, as the Wolves earned the No. 2 seed at next week's Gulf South Conference tournament with an 83-77 win over West Alabama Thursday night at The Coliseum.
What it Means: The top four seeds will host in the first round of the Gulf South Conference tournament next Tuesday, deemed Super Tuesday by the GSC. The Wolves came into the night in third place in the GSC standings, one game behind West Alabama, a team tied for first in the league. West Georgia holds the tiebreaker over UWA, meaning the Wolves get the second seed in the tournament, taking on 7th-seed Christian Brothers on Tuesday, with the tip scheduled for 8:00 p.m. at The Coliseum. The winner of that game advances to the GSC tourney semifinals on Friday at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
How it Happened: The regular season finale had a playoff atmosphere fromt he start on Thursday evening, but West Alabama came out as the aggressor early in the game, taking a 6-0 lead in the first two minutes of the contest, then extended that advantage to 17-12 with nine minutes left in the half. In that span, UWA kept the Wolves off the scoreboard, but used an impressive effort from Justin Wright to keep moving forward. Wright led all scorers on the evening with 26 points.
The Wolves began to claw their way back into the game over the next five minutes, and at the 4:20 point, a three-pointer from junior
Zach Taulien gave West Georgia its first lead of the game at 20-19. The two teams went back-and-forth over the final four minutes of the period, and with 15 seconds left in the half,
Deontre Brown connected with a three-pointer that put the Wolves up 26-25. .
After the break, the Wolves came out firing on all cylinders, outscoring the Tigers by a 10-4 margin over the first three minutes of the second half. The Tigers went on a 6-0 run over the next minute of the contest, tying the game at 36-36 with just over 16 minutes left in the game. At that point, the Wolves' offense exploded with a 12-0 run that gave UWG a 48-36 lead with thirteen minutes remaining in the game. West Alabama cut the UWG advantage to as little as two points late in the contest, but the Wolves hit 6-of-6 from the free-throw line in the final minute to hold off the Tigers' charge.
West Georgia hit 11-of-15 from three-point range in the game, including a blistering 6-of-8 from beyond the arc in the second half. Cochran was solid in his Senior Night outing, going 3-for-5 from three-point range en route to 11 points in the game. Stocks led the Wolves with 20 points, followed by
Emory Bernard with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Alex Abreu scored 12 and
Marcus Dortch, playing for the first time since January 24, scored 10 points.
Odds and Ends: Thomas Higginbotham had four assists and zero turnovers, making his case to retake the top spot nationally in that category ... Deonta Stocks scored 20 points in the game, moving past three players on the single-season scoring list ... Stocks now has 593 points this season, and is eight points away from the top-10 on that single-season scoring list ... West Georgia moves to 20-7 on the year, the second 20-win season for head coach
Michael Cooney, and 15-7 in GSC play.
What It Means, Pt. 2: The immediate elation from Thursday's win has to do with the Gulf South Conference tournament, but the Wolves made a big case for the NCAA tournament as well with the victory. West Georgia came into the night 4th in the region, while West Alabama was 6th. The Wolves' win over a ranked opponent will be a big step towards the NCAA South Regional, as UWG will likely end the regular season ranked no lower than 4th in the region. The conference champion of each of the three conferences in the region receives an automatic bid to the tourney, with the top five seeds beyond those champions receiving the remainder of the bids.
Up Next: West Georgia will play at home on Super Tuesday as the second seed in the Gulf South Conference tournament. The Wolves will take on Christian Brothers, the seven-seed, with tipoff set for 8:00 p.m.
