Carrollton, Ga. – December 17, 2005 – In the final contest before the holiday break, the West Georgia Braves were not in a giving mood against the Henderson State Reddies, committing just 10 turnovers in a 61-51 win at the HPE Building.
For the 10th time in as many games this season, the Braves outrebounded an opponent. Led by Antonio Shaw’s 13 rebounds, West Georgia beat the bigger Reddies 39-29 on the boards.
“The strangest thing about that is that we aren’t a very big team,” said head coach Ed Murphy. “You wouldn’t think we would outrebound anyone, but our guys like Antonio and Chris Burras fight like crazy for the ball on every shot.”
The two teams played a see-saw battle in the first 14 minutes of the contest. West Georgia struck first with a 4-0 lead in the opening minutes, but Henderson came right back to take a 9-4 lead at the 13:14 mark.
But at the 9:00 point, Michael Ford hit a driving layup to put the Braves up at 16-15 and West Georgia would never trail again.
The lead continued to build and reached it’s apex in the first half with three seconds left as Ford hit a jumper to send the teams into the locker room at 29-20.
UWG came out firing in the second half, building the lead to 40-25 in the first five minutes of the period. But the Reddies weren’t done yet, using a vicious press to whittle the lead down to as little as five points with 3:31 left in the contest.
But a 6-0 West Georgia run over the next two minutes put the game out of reach. The win gives the Braves a little revenge from earlier in the season, when Andrius Petkunas’ foot was called on the line with a shot as time expired and the Reddies came away with a 50-49 win.
Ford led the Braves with 19 points on the evening. Shaw was the only other Brave in double-figures, scoring 17 points to go with his 13 boards. It was his fourth double-double of the season and eighth as a Brave.
West Georgia moves to 8-2 before the holiday break. The Braves’ next action comes against 8th-ranked Florida Southern at the Florida Southern Ledger Holiday Classic on December 29.