PENSACOLA, Fla. – After a hard fought 40 minutes of basketball, the UWG men's basketball team saw their six-game winning streak come to an end after a 79-75 loss to the West Florida Argonauts on Wednesday night.
The Wolves dominated the glass, out-rebounding the Argos by 10, but struggled on the offensive end, shooting 40% from the field and 16.7% from three in the four-point loss.
"Give West Florida credit because they really played well and they were well coached", said Head Coach
Dave Moore. "I thought we did some good things, winning the points off turnovers, points in the paint, second chance points, fast break points, bench points, and we lose the game because we go 5-30 from the three-point line and miss six free throws and you lose by four. That's the game right there."
A competitive first half began with the Wolves taking a 15-11 lead after a steal and fastbreak layup from
Camron Donatlan. The two teams traded baskets before back-to-back threes from West Florida's Daniel Sofield and Jared DeHart tied the game at 21 with 9:46 left to play. Moments later, the Argos went on an 8-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at eight before West Georgia responded with a 6-0 to cut the West Florida lead to two. Led by their defense, UWG kept putting pressure on UWF as
Michael Zabetakis made a layup to tie the game at 34, going into the break.
West Georgia won the rebounding battle by 10 in the first half, but only shot 38.2% from the field and 1-12 from three. Zabetakis led the way for the Wolves with 11 points.
Out of the break, West Florida was a step ahead of West Georgia as the Argonauts got out to a four-point lead, five mintues into the second half. For majority of the half, UWG would cut the UWF lead to two-six points but could never take the lead until late in the half when Zabetakis tied the game at 66 with a three-pointer to cap off a 6-0 West Georgia run. Seconds later, a pair of
Zawdie Jackson free throws gave the Wolves their first lead of the game since the 10:03 mark of the first half, before a pull-up three from DeHart gave the lead back to West Florida. A
J.J. Barnes floater gave the lead right back to the Wolves, until a pair of free throws from UWF's Wendall Matthews and a three from Sofield put the Argonauts up for good, as they went on to win, 79-75.
Zabetakis finished with a team-high 19 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and four steals while Jackson added 15 points and seven assists.
West Georgia will be back in action on Saturday when the Wolves play host to their rivals in Valdosta State for a 2 p.m. GSC Matchup in The Coliseum.
"All you can do is turn the page and go back to work tomorrow to get prepared for Valdosta State", coach Moore added. "Its onto the next game. We've responded to adversity before, losing on the road at Lee and then turning around and winning six in a row, so now we have to respond to adversity again."
