DELAND, Fla. - After kicking off conference play 2-0, West Georgia men's basketball suffered its second straight ASUN loss tonight, falling 95-86 to the Stetson Hatters on the road. 

Erasing a 14-point deficit in the first half, UWG (9-7, 3-2 ASUN) fought back to make it a competitive game with the Hatters (7-11, 3-2 ASUN), but ultimately lost following a late Wolves' scoring drought that allowed the hosts to pull away. The SU offense was fueled tonight by 12 made three-pointers on 67 percent shooting. 

Forward Shelton Williams-Dryden led the Pack with 31 points and nine rebounds while shooting 46 percent (12-26) from the field and 100 percent (7-7) from the line. SU was led by forward Collin Kuhl with a season-high 26 points while shooting 90 percent (9-10) from the field and 72 percent from the line (8-11).

"I wasn't happy with how we started the game, especially defensively. To Stetson's credit, they played really well, especially offensively," said head coach Dave Moore following the game. "We didn't have the edge that we needed to have to start the game on the road against a good team. We got down 14 points with four minutes to go in the first half, and we were able to respond and come back to cut the lead to three at halftime, which gave us a chance. The second half was a battle, and again, to Stetson's credit, they made big shot after big shot after big shot tonight."

Stetson kicked off today's contest attacking from the paint to jump out to an early advantage. 

With the Hatters opening the game 5-for-5 from the field, highlighted by back-to-back threes, the SU advantage ballooned to 12-4.

Finding success from Williams-Dryden down low, UWG quickly cut the hosts' lead to 14-13.

Even with the Hatters continuing to shoot perfectly from the field, underscored by three three-pointers, West Georgia trailed just 23-19 at the 12-minute media break.

Swinging the ball around using decisive passes, Malcolm Noel found a wide-open Kolten Griffin at the top of the arc for the senior wing to knock down a three and give the Wolves its first lead of the day, up 26-25. 

Quickly recovering, SU strung together a 15-point run to push back out in front, 40-26, with four minutes remaining in the period. The Wolves' five-minute cold spell was finally broken with Griffin three, cutting the hosts' advantage to 40-29.

Despite being down 11 points, UWG continued to fight. Highlighted by back-to-back steals turned scores, West Georgia went on a 13-6 run to dash the Hatters' lead to 46-43 by the break. Griffin led the Wolves with 13 points at the half.

Continuing to stay hot from deep, Stetson opened the second period hitting a pair of threes and a layup to push its lead to 51-45.

With Williams-Dryden scoring the opening five UWG points in the period, the Pack cut the advantage to three.

Hitting layups, floaters and midrange jumpers, Williams-Dryden continued to punish the SU defense in the opening minutes of the second half. At the 12-minute media timeout, UWG trailed 60-57. 

With the Wolves staying on the Hatters' heels, West Georgia took a 71-70 lead after knocking down three straight shots from the charity stripe. 

Attacking from the paint, SU would jump out in front 78-73 following nearly a three-minute cold spell from UWG. 

Tallying five straight points from Josh Smith and a pull-up jumper from Noel, UWG locked the game at 82-82 with under two minutes to play. 

Unfortunately, West Georgia would miss a handful of shots and give up a late turnover, allowing SU to create an arm's-length lead with under a minute left. 

UWG would fall 95-86. 

The Wolves stay in Florida to take on the Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast this Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will stream live on ESPN+.

Talking about the upcoming matchup, Moore stated, "Coach Chambers does a great job there (FGCU). That's a traditional power in our league. They've got talented guys, they're going to play hard, and we're going to have our work cut out for us. We're going to get back to work tonight. We're going to watch the tape, get ready and we'll have a good game plan ready to go when the ball goes up on Saturday afternoon."

NOTABLE NUMBERS
Griffin's two steals tonight pushed his career total to 100.
-Williams-Dryden's 31 points marks his second 30-point performance of ASUN play. 19 of his points came in the second half.
-Following the forward in scoring tonight was Smith with 22 points, marking the sixth time this season and the third time in conference play that he dropped more than 20.
-Noel and Griffin rounded out the UWG double-digit scorers with the former tallying 15 and the latter scoring 13.
-UWG still has yet to be outrebounded by a conference opponent, finishing tonight with 33 to the Hatters' 31.
-JaVar Daniel tied Williams-Dryden with a team-high nine rebounds.
-SU leads the all-time series 2-0 now.
-UWG finished the day shooting 44 percent from the field, 28 percent from three and 88 percent from the line. Stetson shot 54 percent from the field, 60 percent from three and 80 percent from the line. .