CARROLLTON, Ga. - West Georgia men's basketball outlasted Brewton-Parker tonight (Dec. 16) to secure a 70-49 win in the final home game of non-conference play.
After BP (9-4, 2-1 SSAC) took its first and only lead of the game with ten minutes left, UWG (6-5, 0-0 ASUN) came alive on offense to finish the night on a 26-4 run to secure its sixth win of the season, tying last year's win total.
Shelton Williams-Dryden led the Wolves with 18 points and nine rebounds while shooting 43 percent (6-14) from the field and 75 percent (6-8) from the line. Jaden Hill's ten points led the way for BPCU.
"Part of the game plan was to attack the paint with the dribble to the pass. Go at these guys inside with our size and our length, we weren't able to do that tonight in the first half," said head coach Dave Moore in the post-game press conference. "It got a little bit better in the second half. Shelton (Shelton Williams-Dryden) certainly picked it up in the second half offensively. At the end of the day, Kolten (Kolten Griffin) saved us with some buckets at the three-point line."
Griffin recorded eight second-half points to finish the night with 11.
Wednesday's home clash kicked off with neither team recording a bucket through the opening three minutes.
Following the cold spell, Matija Žužić jump-started the UWG offense with a pair of threes.
Griffin joined in on the fun with another made shot from deep to push the Pack out in front 11-2 with under 14 minutes to play in the half.
Fueled by back-to-back Baron three-pointers, BP responded with a 7-0 run to dash the Wolves' advantage to 18-15 with just over five minutes left in the first.
The two teams traded blows for the remainder of the period, resulting in West Georgia holding a tight 27-21 advantage at the break. Žužić's six points pushed the pace for UWG in the opening half.
Similar to the first period, UWG struggled to hit its shots to open the second.
Highlighted by a pair of three-pointers, the visitors dashed the Pack's lead to 32-29 by the time the first media timeout rang out.
Continuing to drain its shot from deep at a high rate, BP stayed on the Wolves' tails until their fifth three of the half gave the visitors a 45-44 lead, their first advantage of the day with under ten minutes remaining.
With Josh Smith tallying six points, Malcolm Noel draining three shots from the charity stripe and Eric Baldassarre hitting a three, the Wolves pushed back out in front 55-45 before Brewton-Parker knew what hit them.
Fueled by consecutive threes from Griffin, UWG continued to run away with the lead. With under three minutes remaining, the Wolves held a 65-47 advantage.
UWG went on to win 70-49.
The Wolves close out non-conference play next Monday (Dec. 22), taking on the University of Georgia in Athens. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
-UWG held Brewton-Parker to the fewest amount of points allowed since the Wolves elevated to DI.
-UWG out-rebounded the Barons 47-43.
-The Wolves shot 36 percent (24-66) from the field, 31 percent (9-29) from three and 68 percent (13-19) from the line. BPCU finished the night shooting 30 percent from the field (19-63), 36 percent (8-22) from three and 60 percent (3-5) from the line.
