JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — No. 6 West Georgia fell 71-63 to No. 3 Queens Friday in UWG men’s basketball’s first-ever ASUN Tournament semifinal appearance.

Held to its lowest first-half scoring output since January, UWG (15-17, 8-11 ASUN) saw the Royals (19-13, 14-5 ASUN) stretch their lead to 23 points in the second half, a margin that ultimately proved to be too much for the Wolves to overcome.

“We certainly didn’t play our best basketball. That’s a credit to Queens. They were locked in. They were really aggressive defensively. They made it difficult for us to make shots,” said head coach Dave Moore. “Just really proud of our guys — how they battled, especially in the last eight minutes. We’re down 23 points. We could have went away. We didn’t. We decided to go a little bit bigger to match some of their size. In hindsight I probably should have went to that lineup a little bit quicker. Really proud of the guys and how they battled in the last eight minutes.”

Guard Josh Smith led the Wolves with 14 points on 30 percent shooting. Forward Nasiar Mann led the Royals with 17 points on 50 percent shooting.

Queens opened the semifinal game by jumping out to a 10-0 lead after causing the Pack to commit three early turnovers.

Benefiting from six shots at the charity stripe, Queens continued to lead 15-9 at the 12-minute mark despite both teams shooting 29 percent from the field (4-of-14).

With the Wolves continuing to shoot under 30 percent and Queens capitalizing on back-to-back three-pointers, the Royals pushed out to a 29-17 advantage by the final media break of the half.

Settling in on defense, West Georgia chipped away at the Royals’ double-digit lead after forcing QU to commit a handful of late turnovers. At the break, Queens led 33-25. Remarkably, all nine Wolves who played in the first recorded at least two points.

Opening the second period with a 3-pointer from wing Kolten Griffin, UWG inched closer to Queens, but the Royals quickly recovered by answering with a pair of made shots from deep to reestablish a double-digit advantage. At the first media timeout, the Wolves trailed 44-32.

With QU draining three more 3-pointers and attacking from the inside at a 63 percent clip this period, the Royals continued to pull away from the Wolves. With under nine minutes left, UWG trailed 65-42.

Despite being down by more than 20, the Pack continued to fight on both sides of the floor.

Fueled by Smith knocking in six quick points and forward Shelton Williams-Dryden adding four, UWG strung together a 13-1 run to dash the QU advantage to 66-55 with less than four minutes remaining.

With forward Kenneth Chime coming alive on offense by scoring off of inside looks and putting back offensive rebounds, UWG cut Queens’ lead to 69-63, but would run out of time before completing the comeback.

UWG fell 71-63.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

West Georgia men’s basketball wraps up the 2025-26 campaign posting a 15-17 overall record, which is more than double their previous season’s win total of six. In conference play, West Georgia went from four wins last season to posting an 8-11 record this year.Chime recorded his second double-double of the season, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds on 67 percent shooting.West Georgia’s 25 first-half points tonight marked the lowest total UWG scored since falling to Jacksonville back in January (Jan. 10).The loss also marked the Wolves’ lowest three-point percentage (.130) since that loss to the Dolphins.Griffin and Williams-Dryden both finished with 11 points each to round out the Pack of double-digit scorers.