Box Score CLEVELAND, Miss. – The UWG men's basketball team moved to 9-3 in the GSC on Saturday after a 75-63 win over the Delta State Statesmen.
 
West Georgia's (9-4, 9-3 GSC) defense was solid once again as the Wolves held Delta State (4-11, 3-9 GSC) to 37.3% shooting and 30% from three. Offensively, UWG had one of their best outing of the season, scoring 75 points on a season-high 53.7% shooting and a season-high 66.7% from three.
 
"I thought we played as well as we could possibly play in the first half", said head coach Dave Moore. "The guys really rose to the occasion and made some shots that we needed and defensively, I thought we executed what we wanted to do and made it hard on their best players."
 
In the first five minutes of the game, the two GSC teams went back-and-forth, as both offenses got off to hot starts, leading to a 12-11 game in favor of the Wolves. Out of the first media timeout, West Georgia's defense tightened up and held Delta State to zero field goals made for the next seven minutes, which catapulted a 15-2 run to extend UWG's lead to 27-13 and forced a Statesmen timeout. Out of the timeout, the Wolves kept their foot on the gas, as back-to-back threes from Michael Zabetakis and J.J. Barnes and a bucket from Jalen Sasser put West Georgia up by 20 with 6:29 left to play in the half. Delta State's offense began to find their rhythm but they just couldn't stop Sasser and the UWG offense, as the senior scored the next 10 points for West Georgia, leading to a 48-26 lead at the half.
 
Sasser led the Wolves' offense, by scoring 16 points in the first half, while West Georgia shot 60.6% from the field as a team and 63.6% from three.
 
Delta State came out of the break with a different type of energy, as the Statesmen immediately went on a 7-2 run to cut UWG's lead to 50-33, before West Georgia responded with a run of their own to get their lead right back up to 22. For the next five minutes, West Georgia kept their foot on the gas, not allowing the Statesmen to get within 15, until Delta State started chipping away at the Wolves' lead. Courtesy of a 12-5 run, the Statesmen cut the UWG lead to 10 with 4:24 left to play and would get within six moments later. Up six with 2:34 left to play, West Georgia went to their closer, Zawdie Jackson, who proceeded to get to the free throw line seven times to ice the game for the Wolves.
 
Sasser finished with a team-high 16 points, with Jackson right behind him with 15 points, while Cole Fisher and Barnes both finished with 11.
 
"We just have to keep getting better", coach Moore continued. "The guys are working hard, spending extra time shooting the ball. We're on the backend of the second half of the schedule now and teams that are going to keep working, stay together, and get better, are going to be the ones in the hunt at the end and hopefully we can be one of those teams."

West Georgia will be back in action on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. when they play host to Point University.