CARROLLTON, Ga. – The UWG men's basketball team secured their sixth straight win after a 67-51 victory over the Mississippi College Choctaws on Saturday afternoon.
The Wolves used stellar team defense to defeat the Choctaws as they allowed a season-low 51 points and held Mississippi College to 42% from the field and 0-11 from three in route to their 10
th win of the season.
It was a historic start to the ball game for West Georgia as senior
Michael Zabetakis scored the first five points for the Wolves, putting him over 1,000 career points. Zabetakis becomes the 12
th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point milestone and the first player since Marquill Smith who did it back in 2019. Zabetakis jumpstarted the UWG offense as West Georgia took a 10-point lead just nine minutes into the game. Mississippi College responded with a 12-4 run to cut the Wolves lead to two before West Georgia used a
Jalen Sasser led 16-6 run to take a 37-26 lead into halftime.
In the first half, West Georgia shot 48% from the field and 37.5% from three while they also won the turnover battle 11-4.
It was all UWG to start the second half as a
J.J. Barnes three started a 14-0 run for the Wolves to extend their lead to 51-26, seven and a half minutes into the half. During the 14-0 West Georgia run, the Choctaws shot 0-5 and turned the ball over six times which catapulted the run. Down 25, Mississippi College didn't throw in the towel and scored seven unanswered points that cut the UWG lead down to 18 with 12 minutes to play. Buckets from
Seth Brown-Carter and
Kadeim Jones got the Wolves' lead right back up to 24 with 7:50 left to play, putting the game out of reach for the Choctaws. Mississippi College's inability to knock down shots, in the second half, allowed UWG to cruise to a 16-point victory.
Deng Nhial and
Jalen Sasser led the Wolves with 12 points each while
J.J. Barnes added 11 points and a team-high three steals. West Georgia will be back in action on Wednesday when they head to Jackson, Tennessee for a conference matchup against the Union Bulldogs that's set for 8:30 p.m.