Box Score

CARROLLTON, Ga.- Daniel Sofield had a season-high 25 points and a team-high eight rebounds while Tarik Mckelphin added 19 points and seven rebounds, yet West Florida's last-second attempt fell short as the UWF Men's Basketball dropped the first of two weekend contests at West Georgia, 63-62, on Friday night at the Coliseum.

The loss drops the Argos to 4-7 on the year while the Wolves move to 4-7.

"We played hard enough to win and it was very disappointing for us because our team gave great effort in the contest", UWF Head Coach Jeff Burkhamer said.  "We'll need to play well tomorrow to get a split on the weekend."

The contest could not have started any better for UWF as they jumped out to a 11-1 lead, buoyed by Mckelphin's early 5 points.  West Georgia would climb back into the game, using three, three-point field goals to tie the game up at 17 with 7:09 remaining in the first period.  Sofield would go onto score the next eight points for UWF, but the visitors would enter the half-time break down 31-25.

West Florida only shot 45 percent from the field in the opening period after hitting the 50 percent mark in the first half in both games last week against Shorter.  

UWG would build their largest lead of the night at 11 on a lay-up by Oronte' Anderson, before the Argos would claw back into the match-up.  The Argos would go on 19-7 run, capped off by a Wendell Matthews' free-throw to take a 44-43 lead mid-way through the quarter.  Matthews' added 10 points and four rebounds to be the third Argo in double-figure scoring.

From there on, the teams traded baskets down the stretch, with West Georgia holding a lead as big as only five, before a Mckelphin lay-up put the Argos back in front by one with 4:18 remaining.

A three-minute stretch followed with neither team scoring a basket before the final minute and a half of gametime.  After a UWG jumper, Mckelphin came right back with a lay-up of his own to give the Argos a 62-61 lead with 10 seconds left.  However, West Georgia's Michael Zabetakis would hit two free-throws with under 2 seconds left to give the host's the victory.  Zabetakis led the Wolves with 18 points and two blocks with Deng Nhial adding 13 points and four rebounds for the home team.

On the night, UWF shot 46.8 percent from the field compared to West Georgia's 37.9 percent.  The Argos also went 14-16 from the charity stripe and out-rebounded UWG, 35-32, thanks to Sofield and Mckelphin combining for 15.

The two teams will play again tomorrow afternoon at the Coliseum.  Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. ET.

For the latest on the UWF Men's Basketball team, please visit GoArgos.com or follow the team on Twitter @UWFMensBBall.