Despite four players scoring in double figures, the Shorter Hawks fell to the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers by 18, 78-96.
It was a three point shooting affair in the opening half as the two teams took 15 threes each, shooting nearly identical percentages. Shorter (11-12, 6-11) hit 7 of 15 attempts from beyond the arc, while Alabama Huntsville (17-5, 14-3) nailed one more. The difference in the first half came at the free throw line, where the Chargers converted six of seven tries in the opening half, while the Hawks were 0 of 2.
UAH led for nearly the entire half – 19:36 to be exact. Phil Taylor scored the first eight Shorter points to bring his squad within three, 11-8, but the Hawks would not get any closer as the Chargers had a 12-point advantage with 4:20 to go in the half. SU pulled within nine, but trailed 47-38 at the intermission.
Coming out of the locker room, Trevor McDade cut Alabama Huntsville's lead to seven on a put back off an Amonte Potter miss. McDade again cut the UAH lead to single digits, this time at 60-52. From there, the floodgates opened and the Chargers finished the game on a 36-26 run. The visitors lead by as many as 26 when the clock read 2:32, but SU cut into the lead, making the final score 96-78 in favor of UAH.
Shorter's three point shooting cooled off in the second period, as the Hawks made only 4 of 14 second half attempts. The Chargers remained hot from beyond the arc shooting 8 of 18 in the half and 16 of 33 for the game. UAH shot 56.3% from the field while Shorter converted 40.6% of its field goal attempts.
Potter scored 21 points for the Hawks on a 7 of 12 shooting. Taylor added 13 points and set the Gulf South Conference record for most free throws made in a season. Alijah Bennett and Chris Daniels also scored in double figures, with 11 and 10 points each. Seab Webster tallied a double-double for the Chargers, scoring 24 points to go along with 12 rebounds.
Shorter will look to return to the win column when West Georgia comes to town. Tipoff of the GSC matchup between the Hawks and Wolves is set for 8 PM EST from the Winthrop-King Center on Thursday, February 11th.
