CARROLLTON, Ga. – The University of West Georgia men's basketball team remained undefeated and picked up their first home win of the season after an 83-64 win over the Fort Valley State Wildcats on Saturday.
 
UWG (3-0) put together another defensive masterclass, holding Fort Valley State (0-4) to 64 points on 34.6% shooting, leading to their third consecutive double-digit win to begin the year.
 
"I thought in the first half we were really good defensively and we did exactly what we wanted to do," said head coach Dave Moore. "The guys are buying in on how we need to win and we need to win on the defensive end and the backboard. We dominated the glass again tonight with 30 rebounds and 40 rebounds overall, plus 16 on the glass, that's who we need to be."
 
West Georgia came out firing to start the game, going on a 19-0 run after Fort Valley made the opening basket, leading 19-3 after eight minutes of play. Zawdie Jackson made each of his first three shot attempts including a 2-for-2 mark from beyond the arc, and the Wolves led 25-11 at the under-eight timeout.
 
Marlon Smith was equally as hot from the three-point line as he started 3-for-3 from downtown and helped UWG extend the lead to 38-19 at the final media timeout of the half.
 
A Tamaury Releford layup with less than a minute remaining gave UWG their largest lead of the half, but the Wildcats got it back under 20 until Braxton Beaty's three-pointer at the buzzer made it a 21-point, 48-27 margin at the break.
 
The Wolves opened the second half on an 11-4 run, stretching their lead to 27 at the 14:58 mark on another Jackson three-pointer.
 
Fort Valley would battle back with a 9-0 run before Cole Fisher got the Wolves back offensively with a three-pointer, and then a three-point play from Amari Davis extended the lead back up over 20 with just over 8:00 to play in the game.
 
UWG's lead wouldn't dip under 20 until under a minute after both teams had emptied their benches to give reserves some experience.
 
Jackson led the way with a game-high 20 points and a game-high nine assists, while Smith poured in 14 points off the bench.
 
West Georgia will wrap up non-conference play on Monday when they welcome the Point University Skyhawks for a 7:00 p.m. matchup.
 
"Our offense feeds off our defense," coach Moore continued. "If we can keep defending and rebounding as a group and have our bench keep coming in and giving us minutes, we're going to be a really good group moving forward."