ROME, Ga. – LaTrell Tate and Daniel Sofield combined for 41 points to lead the UWF men's basketball team to a much-needed, 72-54, win over Shorter at the Winthrop-King Centre on Saturday.
 
UWF (8-10, 4-10 Gulf South) snapped a five-game losing skid and avenged an earlier loss to the Hawks in Pensacola in November. The Argonauts shot 50 percent from the floor and had 13 fast-break points.


"We finally put together two good halves of basketball," UWF head coach Jeff Burkhamer said. "We made open shots and did a really good job of executing at both ends of the floor. Our zone bothered them some and we rebounded well out of the zone. And LaTrell and Daniel made shots which is always going to help us."
 
The offense was rolling from the opening tip as Sofield made his first three shots to help put UWF ahead 11-4. In fact, the Argos rattled off a stretch where they made 11-of-12 to extend the lead to 23-13.


But the Hawks battled back and cut the Argo margin to 32-29 with 3:30 left. UWF didn't falter and turned the tables with a 10-0 run highlighted by a pair of 3-points from Tate in the final 45 seconds for a 42-29 advantage at the break.
  
The second half was more of the same as UWF extended the lead to 67-39 with 7:38 remaining. That stretch from the end of the half to that point resulted in UWF outscoring Shorter 35-10 over 11:04.


The Argos made at least 10 3-pointers for the fifth time this season and the fourth time in the last nine contests.


Tate led all scorers with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-8 from outside. Sofield's 18 points came on 7-of-12 with three triples and both players had four assists.


Dell Matthews had all nine of his points in the first half on 3-of-5 shooting.
 

Shorter (3-15, 1-13) shot 38 percent but that included 5-of-11 in the last seven minutes. Raphael Houssou was the only Hawk in double figures after finishing with 10 points.
 

The Argos will return home to play host to Delta State (6-11, 5-9) on Thursday night at the UWF Field House. The game is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start following the women's game at 5:30 p.m.