STATESBORO, Ga.- After playing it close the whole first half, the men's basketball team's second half push would fall short as the Wolves stumbled against Georgia Southern, 64-54 at Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro.

West Georgia (0-6) would have early shooting woes against Georgia Southern (5-2) which would make it hard for them to complete the comeback in the second half.

"Some positives, we held them to 38.7 percent from the field, that's a goal of ours to keep teams under 40 percent from the field," said Head Coach Dave Moore. "We did that for the first time this year. The same things that have been hurting us, hurt us again tonight. We had a negative assist to turnover ratio, 14 assists, 15 turnovers. Now, we compensate a little bit for tonight, we forced 20 turnovers and 12 steals."

Despite West Georgia's dominant defensive prowess, the early shooting struggles would put the Wolves in a hole in the first half. With both teams struggling early, it was hard for any team to get going and find momentum. West Georgia would shoot 7-of-28 from the field and 0-of-11 from beyond the arc, while Georgia Southern would shoot 9-of-27 from the field and 4-of-16 from the three.
For majority of the half it was a one possession game that could go anyone's way but at the 8:59 mark Georgia Southern would catch fire from deep and go on an 8-0 run that would allow them to slowly pull away from the Wolves to take a 24-17 lead, at the break.

The second half had a different feel as both teams found their footing and were able to make shots. West Georgia would go 6-of-10 from deep as Kolten Griffin and Rickey Ballard would lead the way attributing two three's each. This would put West Georgia in great position to slow down the Eagles' offense but Adante Holiman would go a perfect 4-of-4 from three that would put Georgia Southern over the hump and silence the Wolves' final push.

"The shooting efficiency is hurting us, so we only shoot 37 percent in the field, 28 percent from three, and 36 percent from the foul line. That's not good enough to beat a team on the road." continued Moore. "We have to continue to try to improve in those areas, but I was really encouraged by our defense today. I thought we had some toughness and some scrap for 40 minutes, and that's a good sign."

Shelton Williams-Dryden would be a key contributor to UWG with tallying another 20-point performance, finishing with 21 points, shooting 10-of-16 and adding on seven rebounds. Kolten Griffin also finished in double figures with 10 and Rickey Ballard would chip in with eight points.

"Every time we play, we have an opportunity to get better together, and that's what we are trying to do. We've got three teams coming up that are very good programs. Samford was an NCAA tournament team last year, the event is at their home court, so they're gonna be hard to deal with. Utah Valley State and North Dakota State, are good programs and really well-coached. So, it's another opportunity to play a bunch of new guys trying to gel together, find our identity, as well as we get closer to league play," concluded Moore.

The Wolves be back in action next week at the Samford Thanksgiving Invitational. With matchups against Utah Valley State on Tuesday, North Dakota State on Wednesday, and Samford on Friday.
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