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From Staff Reports

 

AMERICUS – The Georgia Southwestern State University men’s basketball team (GSW) overcame an eight-point halftime deficit to upset 10th-ranked University of North Georgia, 80-71 on Wednesday night in the Storm Dome. North Georgia (20-5, 11-4 PBC) entered the game atop the Peach Belt Conference standings.

GSW took the lead for good with a pair of Christian Koonce free throws with 11:18 remaining. The Hurricanes slowly built the lead to 10 points, 63-53, with 5:03 to play and held off the Nighthawks to get the win. The Hurricanes finished with five more steals than UNG and were more efficient from the free throw line. GSW made 26 of 31 attempts from the charity stripe (83.9 percent) while UNG finished 16 of 30 (53.3 percent)

GSW’s Jalen Johnson led all scorers with 20 points. Johnson connected on 4 of 8 from long range. Koonce scored 15 points and made all six of his attempts from the line. Tim Hall Jr. added 12 points, pulled down a team-best nine rebounds, had two steals and blocked four shots. Justin Monden had four steals and chipped in 10 points off the bench.

The Hurricanes (15-10, 7-8 PBC) wrap up the home portion of their schedule on Saturday with Senior Night against Georgia College (13-12, 6-9 PBC) at 7:30 p.m.