Dec. 3, 2007

Hattiesburg, La. - In a rematch of their last game, West Florida (2-3) held a two point lead at the half but was unable to avenge their overtime loss to William Carey (7-1), as they fell in a hard fought battle 66-58 on the Crusaders campus Monday night. The Argonauts were out scored 22-10 in final seven minutes of the game to drop their third straight. Deondre Boynton led the Argonauts with 12 points and four assists. For the Crusaders, Jeremy Holder led the way with a game high 21 points.

Defense ruled the first half as neither team shot very well in the first 20 minutes, with William Carey shooting 31-percent (10-32) and West Florida shooting 33-percent (9-27) after opening the game only shooting 18-percent from the field for the first half. Going into the break, the Argonauts would sneak out to a slim 24-22 lead after trailing for first part of the first half, taking their first lead of the game with 5:28 lead in the half. Defensively for West Florida Charles Bouie, the Gulf South Conference blocks leader, knocked away two shots in the first 10 minutes of action, while teammate Kenny Holmes picked up three steals. The Argonauts also held lead the Crusaders leading scorer Kyle LaMonte scoreless during the first half.

"Our Zone defense was real aggressive," said UWF head coach Don Hogan. "It was working well, and it was our plan because they don't shoot well from the outside."

Both teams would come out firing in the second half and the Crusaders would open up an eight point 41-33 lead in the first five minutes of the half. However, the Argonauts would come charging back, out scoring William Carey by 12 over the next eight minutes, giving West Florida a 48-44 lead with seven minutes left. The Argonauts would increase their lead to five, their largest lead of the game, before being out scored by 13 down the stretch.

"Our defensive effort was real good," said Hogan. "We had a chance to put them away when we were up by four points, but couldn't hit our free throws and let them back into the game."

Foul troubled plagued the Argonauts as Holmes fouled out with three minutes left in the game, while Bouie, Boynton and Lucas Evangelista each picked up four fouls. The Crusaders took advantage of the fouls, by scoring 17 points at the free throw line.

"David Maddux gave us some real good minutes tonight," said Hogan. "It was also nice to see Rod Doss kind of get on track offensively."

For the game the Argonauts shot 40 percent for the field and 33 percent from beyond the arch, but could not over come the 19 offensive rebounds by William Carey.

"They got offensive rebounds down the stretch on their missed free throws and that was the key to the game," said Hogan. "We held them under 36 percent shooting, but they got too many offensive rebounds and that is just giving them too many extra chances.

"But the key thing is that our guards have to rebound for us, we can't just count on Kenny (Holmes) and Charles (Bouie) to get all the rebounds."

It is the third straight loss for West Florida after they won the first two games of the season, including defeating Concordia (Ala.), which is the only team to beat William Carey this season. Up next for West Florida is Columbus St. Wednesday night at the UWF Fieldhouse with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. It is the Argonauts final home game before the winter break.