MONTGOMERY, Ala. – After trailing by as much as 22 points in the second half the Auburn Montgomery men's basketball team made a furious comeback to tie the game at 82-82 with 4:37 to play, but the visiting Wolves of West Georgia would outscore the home team 16-7 over the final four and a half minutes to earn a 98-89 victory in Gulf South Conference play on Thursday evening.
 
NOTES
• AUM falls to 7-17 on the season with a 3-13 mark in the GSC.
• UWG improves to 14-10 overall with a 9-7 record in league play.
• The Wolves are currently tied for seventh place in the GSC standings with the top eight teams reaching the conference tournament in March.
 
STANDOUT PERFORMERS
• Junior guard Devorious Brown scored a career-best 25 points in the contest, connecting on 7-of-13 field goals and 3-of-5 3-point attempts. He was also a career-best 8-for-9 from the free throw line, tying a career-high of three assists on offense.
• Darrion Taylor tallied 24 points for AUM connecting on six treys for the home team. Taylor is now fourth all time in 3-pointers made with 179 for his career, 16 behind former AUM great Albert Lewis who hit 195 for his career. Taylor also passed the the 900-point plateau in the contest and now stands on 904 points for his career.
• UWG's Marquill Smith scored a career-high 48 points in the contest, connecting on 15-of-26 field goal opportunities including going 5-for-10 from behind the 3-point line. Smith also went 13-for-13 at the charity stripe, while also pulling down 10 rebounds.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Taylor gave the Warhawks the early advantage in the contest, sinking a pair of 3-pointers on his first two shots to put AUM up 6-2 after two minutes of play. The Wolves would outscore the Orange & Black 8-5 over the next three minutes to pull to within 11-10 with 15:41 to go in the first, taking the lead on a 3-pointer by Smith with 15:09 to play, going up 13-11 with the made basket.
• The trey by Smith was the beginning of a 11-0 run by UWG that was finally snapped when Carlos Bell hit a contested layup with 12:36 to play to cut the Wolves' advantage to 21-13. After trading baskets back and forth AUM was able to pull to within 30-24 at the 8:13 mark in the first on a Brown layup, but a 10-2 run by UWG over the next two minutes pushed their lead to 40-26 with 6:24 left in the first.
• UWG would slowly pull away down the stretch, eventually taking a 54-37 lead into the break after Smith hit another 3-pointer with :11 seconds left in the frame.
• After connecting on a pair of free throws in the early goings of the second half Smith hit a trey with 18:53 to go to give UWG its largest lead of the night at 59-37. However, AUM would not go away quietly as the home squad would outscore the visitors 14-4 over the next four minutes to cut the deficit to 63-52.
• After a pair of quick layups by the Wolves extended their advantage to 67-52, the Warhawks would once again inch their way back into the contest. AUM cut the lead to 10 at 69-59 on a Kenneth Keith layup with 11:48 to play, then got the lead down to single digits at 73-64 on a Stanley Davis trey with 10:00 on the clock.
• The Warhawks would outscore the Wolves 18-9 over the next five minutes, tying the game at 82-82 with 4:37 to play on a Taylor 3-pointer that got the home faithful on their feet. The teams traded points once again before UWG was able to take an 88-84 lead on a Michael Zabetakis 3-pointer with 3:23 to play.
• The Wolves would then outscore the Warhawks 10-5 over the last three and a half minutes to secure the victory, as UWG's Deng Nhial hit an uncontested layup with :04 seconds to play to give his squad a slightly larger margin of victory.  
 
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
• AUM war out-rebounded 46-26 in the contest.
• The Warhawks' bench outscored UWG's 35-22.
• The Wolves scored 34 points in the paint while AUM scored 25.
• UWG connected on 24-30 free throws while the Warhawks hit 15-18.
 
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