PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Auburn Montgomery Men's Basketball Team erased a double-digit deficit in the final three minutes of the second half, but ultimately fell 74-69 to the West Florida Argonauts on Saturday, Dec. 18.
 
With the loss, AUM's record drops to 3-8 overall and 0-3 in Gulf South Conference action.
 
Jeremiah Bozeman led AUM with a game-high 20 points on a 7-13 shooting night. The senior guard also hauled in a team-high nine rebounds and swiped three steals.
 
Roderick Smith (15) and Sam Youngblood (13) both also scored in double digits for AUM, with Smith swatting a game-high three blocks.  Isaiah Hart added a game-high eight assists in the setback.
 
The Warhawks knocked down six of their first eight shots to begin the game, with a James Graham layup at the 13:55 mark making it a 15-13 score in favor of West Florida.
 
West Florida went on to outscore AUM 12-7 over the next five minutes to extend its lead to 27-20 at the 8:52 mark.  AUM battled back with five unanswered points and stayed within striking range of the Argos for the remainder of the first half, with the Argos edging the Warhawks 15-13 over the final six-plus minutes to take a 42-38 lead into the break.
 
The Argos outscored the Warhawks 12-4 over the first six minutes of the second half to jump out to a 54-42 lead at the 12:55 mark.
 
UWF held a double-digit lead for the majority of the half, until a Jelal Williams layup made the score 68-59 in favor of the Argos and kick-started an 11-2 run from AUM over the next two minutes and 25 seconds.
 
A three-pointer by Bozeman at the 1:03 mark capped off AUM's run and cut the Warhawks' deficit to just two points with 1:03 left to play. West Florida stayed the course, however, and scored four of the game's final five points at the free throw line and came up with multiple defensive stops to give way to the 74-69 final.
 
Despite shooting 57 percent (16-28) in the first half, the Warhawks cooled off in the second half with a 32 percent (11-34) clip to finish the game at 43 percent (27-62) from the floor. The Argos finished the game with a 45 percent (26-57) field-goal efficiency.
 
AUM shot 33 percent (7-21) on threes while the Argos used an 8-14 first half from three to finish the game at 53 percent (9-17) from downtown.  
 
The men's basketball team will return to the court on Monday, Dec. 20 for the final contest of the 2021 portion of its schedule at Valdosta State. Tip-off from Valdosta, Ga. is set for 7:00 p.m. (CST).
 
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