Miami, Florida – Basketball is split into two halves. Offense and defense, and for the West Georgia Wolves the defensive half mimicked a pack of wolves on the hunt emphatically in the 57-54 win over Division I foe Florida International on Tuesday night at the CBE/O’Reily Auto Parts Classic.
In his postgame interview, head coach
Michael Cooney’s kept repeating a single phrase, “I was amazed by our defense tonight, and could not be prouder of our team!”
FIU (3-2) had the overwhelming size factor, but the Golden Panther’s ball handling proved to be the home teams down fall, as the Wolves forced 22 turnovers, including 13 steals.
UWG and FIU went back and forth all evening as the match-up featured 11 ties and 13 lead changes. The Golden Panther’s established a six point lead early and following
Nikola Gacesa’s lay-up at 12:03 to push the FIU lead to 12-6, UWG’s
Adam Stanger laid in a basket of his own sparking a 7 to 2 Wolves’ run over the next four minutes to give UWG their first lead of the game at 15-14 on
Chris Miller-Williams’ free throw at the 7:47 mark.
FIU shot 54 percent in the first half, but found themselves up by just one at the half at 29-28. West Georgia shot 39 percent from the field for the game, but hit 70 percent of their free throws, which down the stretch was the outcome in the game.
Doug Daniels paced the Wolves with 13 points, but swiped seven steals and was 5-of-6 from the charity stripe,
Chris Miller-Williams added 10 points, five rebounds, and was 4-of-5 from the free throw department, but the star for UWG was
Jeremy Smith.
Smith had eight points on the night but six came in 1:12 down the stretch. FIU had just taken a 48-46 lead with 2:54 remaining in the game on a
Freddy Asprilla layup when Smith went to work. His 3-point play pushed West Georgia back on top, 49-48, with 2:28 to go. He would later hit on one-of-two free throw attempts and then his steal and subsequent driving layup gave the Wolves a 52-48 lead with 1:16 to go.
The Golden Panther’s had one final shot with 8.7 seconds remaining, but
Nick Taylor’s game-tying attempt rimmed off the backside and into the hands of
Deion Sims, who dribbled out the final seconds to secure the Wolves’ 57-54 victory.
West Georgia (2-3) faces Toledo in the CBE Classic at 5:00 pm.