PENSACOLA, Fla. – The West Florida men's basketball team led by two points at halftime and stepped on the gas in the final 20 minutes to take an 83-72 win over Spring Hill on Saturday afternoon in the UWF Field House. With the win, UWF improved to 3-5 and now has an eight-day layoff before facing Lee on Sunday, December 15.
 
"We won the game, but I'm not sure how successful we were," head coach Jeff Burkhamer said. "I thought our execution could have been better, but we played well enough to win the game. The guys played well enough down the stretch to keep the lead, but overall I'm a little disappointed in how we played coming off a good win on Wednesday."
 
West Florida got 31 points from sophomore Jon Brown, and his 10 rebounds gave him his third double-double in five games this season. Tarik McKelphin added 16 points – a season-high for the junior – in just 23 minutes, shooting 6-of-9 from the field, and Lawrence Williams went 7-16 from the floor to add another 16 points. It was Williams's third consecutive game with double-digit points and his sixth this year.
 
It was a back-and-forth first half, with UWF going on a 5-0 run to end the opening 20 minutes with a 33-31 lead. But the Argonauts came out hot in the second, starting the period with an 11-1 run to stretch the lead to 10 in the first 3:34.
 
West Florida would never look back from there, leading by as much as 14 and never letting the lead get smaller than 6 points. UWF shot 51.5 percent (17-33) in the second half and made 4 of 7 three-point tries, while also converting 12 free throws.
 
"We became a lot more aggressive in the second half, a lot more active," Burkhamer said. "We came out and had a good start to open the game, and it stayed there. We'll give the guys a couple days off to prepare for finals, and hope they'll have a good week there. After that, we've got three games in five days to close off a good homestand."
 
UWF will have a little more than a week off before continuing Gulf South Conference play against Lee and Alabama Huntsville, on December 15 and 17 in Pensacola. Fans can keep up with the team by following @UWFMensBBall on Twitter.