TROY, Ala. - UWG men's basketball secured a 93-89 double overtime win over Troy tonight (Dec. 1) on the road.
With the Trojans (5-5) hitting its shots at an 80 percent clip to open the second period, it seemed like the hosts were going to run away with it after going up 54-42, but UWG (5-3) settled in and clawed its way back to force overtime thanks to a clutch 12-0 scoring run that was fueled by three-pointers from multiple Wolves. Guard Chas Lewless then finished off the Trojans by knocking down 20 overtime points to secure UWG a win over the 2024-25 Sun Belt Champions at its home gym.
Lewless' team-high 26 points mark a new personal best for the guard. Tonight, he finished hitting 60 percent (9-15) of his shots from the field and 75 percent (3-4) from three. Troy was led by Victor Valdes with a career-high 29 points.
"We battled tonight against a really good team," said head coach Dave Moore. "We had 17 offensive rebounds, and they are a really good rebounding team. The other key to tonight was that we limited our turnovers to five and they had 17. That's really the difference in the game. I'm very proud of the team."
Tonight's game in Trojan Arena opened with the two teams trading blows. By the time the first media timeout rang out, Troy held a 7-6 lead with Lewless adding four points and forward Kenneth Chime tallying two.
Coming out of the break, UWG strung together a 6-0 run, highlighted by a score by Kolten Griffin and a pair of assists by the wing to give the Wolves a 12-8 advantage.
With guard Malcolm Noel and forward JaVar Daniel recording points off the bench, UWG pushed its lead to 18-10 with ten minutes remaining in the half.
Over the next two minutes, the Trojans dashed its deficit to 18-14 with two easy layups during unsettled looks.
After the Wolves' scoring drought was extended to over three minutes, Griffin crashed the boards to put back a contested shot under the rim, sparking the Wolves' offense to push out in front 22-16 with under six minutes in the half.
Troy finished the period on a 9-2 run to wrap up the half with a 28-27 lead. Remarkably, UWG could not hit a shot from three this period (0-7). Daniel led the way for the Wolves with eight points.
UWG opened the second period tallying back-to-back layups courtesy of Griffin and forward Shelton Williams-Dryden, forcing the hosts to call a break in the action down 31-28.
After the Trojans locked the game at 31 apiece, guard Brady Hardewig drained the Wolves' first three of the game to put the Pack up 34-31.
With the Wolves' offense going cold and the hosts going 3-for-3 from beyond the arc, Troy pushed out in front 50-41 with under 13 minutes of play.
UWG locked the game at 54-54 with six minutes remaining after going on a 12-0 run featuring three-pointers from Xavier Shegog, Josh Smith and Noel.
Over the next five minutes, neither team was able to create any breathing room. With just over 60 seconds to play, the score was 65-65.
With both squads going scoreless in the final minute, UWG was set to play in its first overtime since jumping to DI.
Following back-to-back buckets from Troy and missed free throws by UWG, the hosts jumped out to a 71-67 lead to start OT. The Wolves quickly recovered to knot the game 71-71 thanks to Lewless turning his steal into UWG points.
With the teams trading leads, UWG jumped out to a 75-74 advantage with 40 seconds left thanks to Smith hitting a mid-range jump shot.
After Troy missed a pair of free throws, Lewless drained another mid-range shot to push the advantage to 77-74.
With under two seconds remaining, Troy responded with a three at the top of the arc to tie the game at 77-77 and force a second overtime.
Like a man on a mission, Lewless opened the second overtime following his mid-range shot with a three to push UWG in front 82-81.
With Troy going on a 4-0 run after a pair of missed Wolves' free throws, the hosts found themselves up 86-84 with 90 seconds to play.
After UWG locked it back at 86-86, Lewless knocked down another three to put the Wolves in front, but Troy responded with an equalizer.
With under 30 seconds to play, Lewless hit his third three-pointer of overtime to give the Wolves a 92-89 lead.
Being sent to the line with almost no time left, Lewless knocked down a free throw to put the Wolves' lead out of reach.
UWG won 93-89.
The Wolves return home to rematch Tennessee Tech this Saturday (Dec. 6) at 2 p.m. in The Coliseum.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
-Lewless' scoring career-high marks the sixth time this season that he has set new personal bests. He also finished with a career-high four steals.
-Shegog recorded his first double-digit scoring performance, finishing with a career-high 10 points.
-Chime recorded a career-high 10 rebounds.
-Williams-Dryden tallied his 14th straight game knocking down double-digits, finishing tonight with 16 points.
-UWG hit 43 percent (37-87) from the field, 35 percent (8-23) from three and 50 percent (11-22) from the line. Troy went 44 percent (31-70) from the field, 32 percent (9-28) from three and 62 percent (18-29) from the line.