TAMPA, Fla. - Playing on the road for the fourth straight time to open the season, the West Georgia Wolves men's basketball team fell to South Florida, 74-55, on Friday night.

West Georgia (0-4), who led for the majority of the opening half, had a rough night shooting, finishing the game 20-of-57 from the field. South Florida (2-2) shot over 50 percent from the field and hit five three-pointers in the second half.

"South Florida is a talented group, and they shot 50 percent from the field which is not good for us," said head coach Dave Moore. "But I thought we battled. I thought we played good enough defense and we took care of the ball well enough to be in the game. We didn't shoot foul shots. We were a little over 52 percent from the foul line, and we can't beat anybody doing that."

UWG was 10-of-19 from the charity stripe while South Florida finished 13-of-18.

"That's a huge deal. That's nine points in a game where both teams, quite frankly, struggled to score points," Moore added. "We're battling though, and we're fighting to the end and playing hard for 40 minutes so I'm proud of our effort."

Shelton Williams-Dryden led all scorers with 20 points, giving the Milwaukee native back-to-back 20-point games, shooting 9-for-18 from the field.

The Wolves wouldn't trail in the game until the 12:02 mark in the first half, and then over the final 10 minutes of the period, South Florida used a 18-6 run to build a 13-point halftime lead. 

In the second half, the teams would trade baskets out of the gate with West Georgia eventually chipping away to make it a five-point game on a layup by Williams-Dryden at the 12:33 mark. South Florida answered that basket with three-pointers on three straight possessions to get the lead back to double-figures where it would stay for the remainder of the game.

"We couldn't answer. We've got to be able to go down and answer when they make the run," Moore added. "Our shotmaking is not where it needs to be for us to be a successful team, but I think our rebounding and our defense can be, and it was a great sign that we took better care of the ball tonight."

Offensively, the Wolves protected the basketball better with just 10 turnovers, but South Florida was able to capitalize and turn those into 16 points on the other end. The Bulls also had the advantage on the glass, 40-32, and scored 46 points in the paint to 26 from UWG.

Senior Kolten Griffin joined in on the scoring with 13 points, and just missed a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds to go with four assists. Kyric Davis was third on the team in scoring with nine points and was active on defense, blocking five shots.

USF had four in double-figures, led by Jimmie Williams with 14 points while Jamille Reynolds had a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards.

West Georgia's next action will be at home, as the Wolves will host Troy in the first ever Division I basketball game in The Coliseum on Tuesday, November 19 at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at uwgathletics.com/tickets.

"Hopefully we can get a big crowd in The Coliseum. We need the students to come out. We need the community to come out. I think it's an exciting time, certainly for West Georgia Athletics, but for Carrollton too and the community. We need both the students and the community to make The Coliseum a great environment," Moore concluded. "We've got a 17-game home win streak still going, and we've got guys on this team that have earned that, and we're going to go try and defend that."