ROME, Ga. – The Shorter Hawks made a clear statement that the talent on this year's team goes deep, very deep in the roster Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to a 32-point output off the bench and a late run, the Hawks began the 2015 portion of their schedule off to a good start when Shorter handed visiting West Alabama a 78-69 Gulf South Conference defeat at the Winthrop-King Centre.

The win improves the Hawks to 9-4 overall and 4-3 in the GSC heading into Monday night's conference clash that starts at 8 p.m. against rival West Georgia.

Against West Alabama, Shorter took control of the game from the opening tip as the Hawks raced out to the early lead and grabbed a 14-point margin, their largest of the game, when senior Travis Jones scored in the lane to give the home team a 17-3 advantage.

The Hawks would go on to assume a 42-38 edge at the half as eight different players broke into the scoring column over the first 20 minutes.

Shorter continued to keep the Tigers (8-7, 3-4) at bay over the first 17 minutes of the second half, extending its lead to as much as nine points but saw West Alabama slowly cut into the difference and with 5:24 left to play the visitors knotted the game up 64-64 when Lleon Tillman scored inside, was fouled and gave his team a traditional three-point play.

The Hawks, however, quickly squashed any hopes the Tigers had of coming up with a road win as Shorter responded with nine unanswered points to pull away for good.

With 4:29 to go, Tyler Alderman – the junior center wound up leading the charge off the bench scoring 14 points – canned a basket in the lane to give the Hawks the lead back for good.

Less than 30 seconds later, senior Dedric Ware, who led the Hawks pouring in a game-high 19 points and handed out eight assists, nailed a three-pointer to make it a five-point spread and Jones and Alderman capped the run scoring in the lane.

Jones and junior Matt Catanzano joined Ware and Alderman in double figures, with Jones adding 10 points and Catanzano finishing the game with 10 points off the bench, and junior Kordario Fleming had eight points and six assists in a reserve role.

The Hawks, who have been hitting more than half of their shots a game, continued to find the range against the Tigers 55-percent field goal accuracy against West Alabama.

Charles Eaton paced the Tigers' scoring 17 points, while Jarrell Byrd and Tillman had 15 and 14 points, respectively.

When Shorter returns to the court on Monday, it will be going up against a West Georgia squad that is tied for second place in the GSC standings, having improved its overall record to 9-2 and its conference slate to 4-2 after cruising past Lee on Saturday, 96-72.