LIVINGSTON, Ala. – After 40 minutes of hard-fought competitive basketball, the UWG men's basketball team dropped a tough 83-76 decision to West Alabama on Saturday.
 
West Georgia struggled to get stops as West Alabama shot 51% from the field and 46% from three, handing the Wolves their 11^th loss of the season.
 
Kadeim Jones made his presence felt early in the game as the grad student scored the first eight points for the Wolves, leading to an 8-7 West Georgia lead at the first media timeout. Cole Fisher entered the game for Jones and there was no drop off in production as Fisher buried two threes of his own to give UWG a 23-22 lead with 8:06 left in the half. After more back-and-forth action, Deng Nhial ended an entertaining first half with a three that gave the Wolves a 37-36 lead at the break.
 
Similar to the first matchup between these two teams, the first half was very competitive as we had 13 lead changes and nine ties with neither team able to go up by more than four points.
 
In the first half, West Georgia shot 48% from the field and 50% from three.
 
Out of the break, UWG hit their first three shots, but also turned the ball over three times, leading to a 41-39 West Alabama lead. The two teams continued to trade buckets until a 12-2 run from the Tigers gave them their largest lead of the game at nine. The Wolves responded right back with a 7-0 run to cut West Alabama's lead to 62-60 with 3:15 left to play before the league's leading scorer, Kortrijk Miles, jumpstarted a 9-3 Tiger run that put West Alabama back up by eight with 1:32 left. Eight quick points from J.J. Barnes kept West Georgia alive until five straight made free-throws from West Alabama virtually ended the game.
 
Kadeim Jones finished with a game-high 22 points while Seth Brown-Carter added 16 points and four rebounds. UWG will be back in action on Monday when they head to Rome, Georgia for a conference matchup against the Shorter Hawks that's set for 7:30 p.m.