BOX SCORE

VALDOSTA, Ga. – Myles Ruth scored a season-high 17 points, but it was not enough as Valdosta State scored the final nine points of the game to win, 82-73, on Tuesday night at the Complex.
 
UWF falls to 3-9 and 1-7 in Gulf South Conference play while VSU moves to 6-6 and 3-5 in league action.
 
The Argonauts shot 45.5 percent from the field as a team and led for over 35 minutes, but the Blazers went on 31-7 run to close out the final 11 minutes of game time, as they took their first lead of the second half with 2:40 to play. VSU used an additional 9-0 run to finish the contest.
 
Along with Ruth, Sano Rutatika had a career-high 13 points and eight rebounds, while Channick Nkoma added 11 points.  Le'Tarion White and Xavier Washington scored eight points apiece for UWF.

"I thought our guys came out with a lot of energy tonight", said UWF Head Coach Justin Mann.  "We were able to make sure we had good runs throughout the game which allowed us to get out to a lead into the early part of the second half.  We had some guys get into foul trouble and foul out which messed with our rotation."

West Florida got off to a good start in the first half, as a Washington three with 11:05 left in the first period, put the lead at 21-15, their biggest advantage up to that point.  A lay-up by Rutatika capped a 9-2 run later in the period to give the squad a 11-point lead before a 10-4 run the Blazers, put the game at 44-39 entering the break despite the Argonauts shooting a blistering 54.5 percent.
 
Second half action was more of the same for UWF in the early going as the visitors went on a 12-3 run, finished by a jumper from White at the 16:19 mark, to go up 56-42 and grab the biggest lead of the night. A Washington free-throw extended the lead to 15 before the huge run by VSU.  LaTrell Tate and Caden Boser combined for nine points in two minutes to tie the game at 69 with 4:04 remaining, the first tie since the opening minutes of the contest.
 
White would score on the fastbreak for the Argos to tie the game back up at 73 with 1:17 remaining in regulation, before a Jay Rucker lay-up sparked the final run for Valdosta State which was aided by three Argonaut turnovers.
 
UWF outrebounded the Blazers, 35-27, and had 40 points in the paint.  The Argonauts also scored 16 points off 12 Blazer turnovers and recorded 12 second chance points off of 10 offensive rebounds.
 
Boser led the way for Valdosta State with 19 points on a perfect 7-7 shooting night while Tate and Rucker scored 17 and 12 points, respectively. Tate made nine of VSU's 26 free throws.  Braxton Williams also had 17 points off the bench for the Blazers as they shot 46 percent as a team.

"Give credit to Valdosta State, they stayed poised and fought back", continued Mann.  "We made some mistakes which came back to hurt us late.  I am grateful to be back from the break and I'm ready to get after it the rest of season."

 Up next, UWF will return home for two key conference matchups against Montevallo and Auburn Montgomery this weekend.  Tip-off against the Falcons is set for 4 pm on Saturday while Monday's matchup with the Warhawks is scheduled for 7:30 pm from the UWF Field House.
 
For the latest on the UWF Men's Basketball Team, please visit GoArgos.com or follow the team on Twitter and Instagram @UWFMensBBall.