FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The University of West Georgia Men's Basketball team advanced to the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday after a 75-61 win over the Lee Flames.

UWG (27-5) has been one of the best defensive teams in the country all season long and they put their world class level defense on display against Lee (21-9) as they held the Flames to 33 percent shooting and 14 percent from three, leading to their 14-point victory.

"Give a lot of credit to Lee because they were hard to deal with in the first half," said head coach Dave Moore. "I thought we settled down and did a better job in the second half and when you look at the numbers it's all about our defense. We held them to 28 percent from the floor and didn't allow them to make a three in that second half. When you defend like that while being plus 11 on the glass, that's what we have to do to be successful."

The first half was a back-and-forth battle with West Georgia taking an early 9-8 lead, seven minutes into the game after a pair of free throws from Tamaury Releford. As the game progressed, neither team could take a lead larger than three and with 9:02 left in the period, Zawdie Jackson picked up his second personal foul. As soon as Jackson went to the bench, Lee's guard and former UWG guard JJ Barnes went to work. Barnes scored the next seven points for the Flames while the Wolves' bench unit kept them right there in the game. With 11 seconds left in the half, Marlon Smith secured an offensive rebound off of a missed free throw from Camron Donatlan and buried a 15 foot jumper to give West Georgia a 31-30 lead at the half.

UWG shot 41 percent in the period while holding Lee to 39.3 percent from the floor.

After a slow first half, Jackson was in attack mode from the beginning in the second period and sparked a 15-3 run to give the Wolves a 13-point lead with 13:53 left. A layup from Barnes ended West Georgia's run and ignited a 9-2 Lee run that cut UWG's lead down to six. Up by six with 8:11 left to play, the three-headed monster of Jackson, Donatlan, and Smith took over the game, by scoring the Wolves' next 17 points, propelling West Georgia to a 75-61 win.

Jackson and Donatlan both finished with 17 points while Smith added 13 points off the bench. UWG will now play Florida Southern on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. in the South Region Semifinals.

"It's time to go to work," coach Moore continued. "We got the chance to watch Florida Southern live for the first 30 minutes today and we know that we have a great challenge in front of us."