November 19, 2011

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Carrollton, GA – The Columbus State men's basketball team had a cold shooting performance knocking down under 35% of their field goal attempts as they suffered their first loss of the season, 78-68 to West Georgia in a non-conference matchup Saturday night at The Coliseum in Carrollton.

CSU falls to 2-1 on the year while the Wolves stay unbeaten at 4-0.

The two sides traded off baskets through the early portion of the game before CSU went on a 10-4 run capped off by a pair of Dimitri Davis free throws to give the Cougars their biggest lead of the night, a 16-10 advantage at the 10:26 mark in the first half.

West Georgia chipped away at the lead over the next couple of minutes and regained the lead, 20-18 on a Ryan Godfrey layup.  The two schools would again alternate scoring with three more ties over the next five minutes before Godfrey put the Wolves ahead for good (29-27), this time on a jump shot with 3:25 to go in the opening half. 

Each side would score four more points and the half came with UWG ahead 33-31.

The final 20 minutes of play began much like the first 20 before West Georgia started to separate themselves behind a 16-4 run nearly halfway through the second half that put West Georgia in front 56-40 with 12:40 to go.  Da'Ron Sims key the impressive stretch as he scored 12 of the 16 points including 10 in a row at one point.  The 16 point margin was the largest of the game which they would extend to one more time in the second half. 

Columbus State tried to make a late push in the second half cutting the deficit in half (73-65) after Winford Ivey made a pair of free throws with 2:05 remaining but that would be as close as the Cougars would get as West Georgia held on for the 78-68 victory.

Despite having minor surgery earlier in the week, Steve Peterson came off the bench to lead CSU in scoring with 19 points which included a 4-for-8 performance from three-point range.  Idell Bell, Darius Mcknight and Winford Ivey also hit double figures in scoring chipping in with 11 points each.  Jarmarquis Steverson led the team in rebounds with nine while Mcknight pulled down eight.

As a team, the Cougars shot 34.3% (23-for-67) from the floor while hitting just 6-of-23 (26.1%) attempts from long range.

Sims led all scorers as he poured in a game high 28 points behind a 12-for-24 shooting performance.  Godfrey (15 points) and Gavin Field (11 points) also hit the double-digit mark for UWG.  The Wolves knocked down 51.6% (32-for-62) of their field goal attempts and out-rebounded Columbus State 45-40.

CSU will have an extended layoff as they do not return to the hardwood until Wednesday, November 30 when they travel to Livingston, AL to take on West Alabama.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.