CARROLLTON, GA - In a battle of two of the top three teams in the Gulf South Conference, it was Zawdie Jackson who powered the UWG men's basketball team to a 67-55 victory over the Union Bulldogs on Wednesday at The Coliseum.
 
West Georgia (12-4, 11-3 GSC) got a game-high 22 points from Jackson in a win over Union (11-8, 10-5 GSC) to complete a season sweep over the Bulldogs.
 
Jackson finished 8-of-14 from the field and poured in four three-pointers in five attempts while leading in assists with three.
 
"Zawdie is just an attacker", said head coach Dave Moore. "He's our quarterback out there in the ball screen game and he can dominate and play like that just as he did tonight. If he starts taking the next step of adding that three ball, he's going to be even harder to guard and that's the big key for him. He was terrific tonight."
 
The matchup of two of the top three teams in the GSC lived up to the hype in the opening half, as both teams played a tightly-contested 20 minutes of basketball. Behind a balanced attack, West Georgia led for nearly 18 minutes of the first half.
 
It started with a Zawdie Jackson three-pointer on West Georgia's opening possession, and Jackson would lead the effort with nine first half points. Jackson's jumper at the 7:36 mark gave UWG their biggest lead of the half at five points and the Wolves would finish the half shooting 37 percent from the field while Union shot 40 percent in the opening half. Despite a hook shot at the buzzer from Union's Boe Nguidjol, West Georgia would hold the advantage on the scoreboard, leading 33-31 at the break.
 
Beyond Jackson's nine, the Wolves got seven from Kolten Griffin, six from Michael Zabetakis and five from Camron Donatlan.
 
The second half was more of the same, with Union jumping out to their first lead since the four-minute mark of the first half at 38-35 early in the second. Jackson then fueled a 5-0 run all by himself to turn it back to a 40-38 lead with 14:38 to play.
 
After a Union three-pointer from Nguidjol made it a 42-41 lead for Union, West Georgia responded with an 11-0 run to take a 52-42 lead and force Union to take a timeout with just over nine minutes to play.
 
Union chiseled away at the lead and got it down to a three-point game at the 4:34 mark but it was Jackson again who stopped the momentum with a trey and the Wolves' lead never got below six over the remainder of the game.
 
"We made some adjustments at halftime and did a better job of tightening it up defensively in the second half", mentioned coach Moore. "To hold that team to 24 points and 30% from the field in a half is really good because they have guys that can really play. It wasn't pretty at times but our guys executed and we battled and scraped a little bit harder in that second half and that's what really made the difference."
 
Zabetakis scored 17 points including 11 in the second half and like Jackson hit four three-pointers. The Wolves also got double-digits from Kolten Griffin with 10 points. Donatlan led the way on the glass with nine rebounds while Jalen Sasser grabbed eight.
 
West Georgia will be back in action on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. when they travel to Memphis, Tennessee for a GSC matchup against Christian Brothers.