The past seven days and the whole of the 2015-16 basketball season were very similar for West Georgia, as the Wolves had a tumultous, roller coaster-like week that ended on Saturday afternoon with the fourth Gulf South Conference championship in school history, as UWG took down #1 seeded Alabama Huntsville 99-82 at the Pete Hanna Center on the campus of Samford University.
The week began on a good note for the Wolves, who finished the regular season with six-straight victories and claimed the second-seed in this year's GSC tournament. Then only one player, Steph Branch, earned All-Gulf South Conference honors and the Wolves dropped two spots in the NCAA South Region poll to fifth place. But all of that fell by the wayside late this afternoon, as West Georgia shot 58 percent from the field in the championship game en route to the double-digit victory.
UWG started slow in the first half, with UAH jumping out to a quick 5-0 advantage, but it didn't last long as the Wolves took their first lead of the game at 9-7 with 16:45 left in the half. But the Chargers came back and retook the lead, but with 12:24 left in the half, Jovany Austin hit his second-straight shot, putting the Wolves in front by an 18-17 margin. That would be the last time that Alabama Huntsville would see a lead in the 2016 Gulf South Conference tournament.
West Georgia began to slowly pull away, as the lead stayed in single-digits for the next seven minutes, but at the 5:27 mark of the opening period, Fredi Boehn completed a three-point play that pushed the UWG lead to 10 for the first time. Five minutes later, the two teams went into the locker room and the Wolves held an 18-point advantage at halftime.
The Wolves were red hot from the field in the opening half, as they shot 62.9 percent from the field including 4-of-10 from the arc. West Georgia was also solid down low, scoring 26 first half points in the paint, with the bulk of that from senior Jovany Austin, as he had 12 in the opening 20 minutes, along with 13 from Marcus Dortch as the Wolves led 56-38 at the break.
Alabama Huntsville hit the first two buckets of the second half, cutting the Wolves' lead to 18, but then West Georgia went on a 9-0 run that pushed the lead out to 24 with 16:13 left in the contest and a 65-41 advantage. The Chargers continued to work hard to chip away at the Wolves' lead, and with just over 12 minutes left in the game, a layup from Brandon Roberts cut the UWG advantage to 13 at 72-59. That run continued, and with five minutes to play in the championship game, the lead that was once 24 points had whittled down to a mere four points at 78-74.
Over the next 90 seconds, the Wolves essentially put the game away. First, Marcus Dortch buried a three-pointer to put UWG up 81-74, then UAH missed a three-pointer, which allowed the lead to jump back to 10 with another three-pointer from Keron Briggs. Branch put the icing on the cake with a steal and a breakaway dunk that put UWG up 86-74, much to the delight of the UWG faithful at the Pete Hanna Center.
With 1:44 left in the game, a dunk by Iakeem Alston proved to be a historic two points, as it marked the most points ever scored by a team in the Gulf South Conference finals and it also began the celebration for the Wolves and UWG fans.
Dortch scored 24 points to lead the Wolves and was named to the All-Tournament team, as he averaged 10.3 points per game over the three games. Alston also had another double-figure scoring night and was named Tournament MVP, averaging 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and just over four assists per game through the tournament. Austin was the final double-figure scorer, putting up 16 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
The Wolves will now await the completion of the other tournaments in the South Region and the final announcement of teams that will advance to the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Selection Show is scheduled for Sunday evening at 10:30 p.m. and can be watched at www.ncaa.com.
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