Box Score CARROLLTON, Ga. - Win No. 24 of the 2023-24 regular season escaped out of the hands of the West Georgia Wolves on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland, Mississippi, as the Wolves fell 83-78 to the Delta State Statesmen in the regular season finale.
The Wolves dominated the boards in the game, outrebounding Delta State 46-21, but turnovers were the undoing on this day, as Delta State scored 32 points off of 23 turnovers from UWG on the afternoon.
Camron Donatlan and
Kolten Griffin each picked up a double-double in the game, with Donatlan going for 21 points and 13 rebounds while Griffin had 12 points and 10 boards.
"The story of the game is the 23 turnovers to just seven assists," said head coach
Dave Moore. "It's hard to beat a good team on the road when you have that many turnovers. We had the ball down three with a little over a minute to go and we turned the ball over and that ultimately was the game. I thought we played really hard and battled but we just had too many empty possessions."
Super Tuesday Information
Tickets are $10 for the Super Tuesday contest as the Wolves will likely face Union at The Coliseum on Tuesday in the first round of the Gulf South Conference Tournament. Students will receive free admission with a valid UWG ID and student tickets are $5. UWG Faculty/Staff can email Matt Cooke, the Assistant Athletic Director for Events, Marketing, and Media Services at mcooke@westga.edu for tickets.
For the first five minutes of the game, the Wolves played hard in the paint, creating six shots and taking an early 12-6 advantage with four points from
Zawdie Jackson. The Wolves went cold over the next three minutes as Delta State went on an 11-4 run to take a 17-16 lead with 12:39 remaining in the first half.
A see-saw battle ensued over the next eight minutes that included five lead changes and a tie, and after a layup from Jackson at the 4:22 mark, the Wolves trailed 32-31. In the final four minutes, Delta State's Chris Terrell scored all seven of the Statesmen points while the Wolves put in five as DSU went into the break leading 39-36. The Wolves shot 57 percent from the field in the half but just 1-of-6 from three-point range. Donatlan led the way with seven points in the period while Jackson and
Tamaury Releford each poured in six.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Wolves chipped away at the DSU advantage over the first three minutes of the period, finally breaking through for a lead at the 17:00 mark with a three-pointer from
Cole Fisher to give UWG a 49-47 lead. The two teams went back and forth until the 11:00 mark when the Statesmen went on a tear, hitting four consecutive shots off of Wolves' turnovers to take a 70-59 lead. That extended to 77-64 with 6:56 to play in the game.
The Wolves then went on an 10-0 run to cut the DSU lead to 77-74 with 3:49 left in the contest, turning the final four minutes into a dogfight to the buzzer. The Wolves continued to chip away, and an alley-oop from Jackson to Donatlan with less than two minutes to play cut the DSU advantage to 79-78. The Wolves couldn't convert baskets in the final minute of the game, falling to the Statesmen in a five-point loss.
Jackson was the second-leading scorer for the Wolves in the game, hitting for 17 points. West Georgia falls to 23-5 on the year and 19-5 against Gulf South Conference opponents.
"It's important that we start playing our best basketball right now," coach Moore continued. "We've had some really good halves of basketball but we haven't, here lately, put together two good halves of basketball. When you get to postseason play, the elements of winning stay the same it's just everything is amplified. Right now it's a one game season and we're focused on Union."
A Super Tuesday matchup between West Georgia and Union is set for a 7:30 p.m. tip in The Coliseum.
