Albany State men fall to Georgia College

ALBANY — Jayson Snearl watched as Khaliq Hughes drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing to pull Albany State to within one point of Georgia College Tuesday night.

“I thought at that point, we were about to make a run,” Snearl said. “I thought we were about to take off as a team.”

But the Bobcats answered with a 16-4 run over the next 4:40 to push their lead back to double figures. Albany State never seriously challenged again as the Rams fell 63-49 Tuesday night at the HPER Gymnasium.

“Our Achilles heel again, we had too many turnovers,” Albany State coach Michael Moore said. “We had 16 tonight, that’s four more than the goal we set of 12. But the turnovers came at the most inopportune time.”

Albany State (1-3) had nine miscues in the first half when the Rams dug themselves in a large hole, trailing by as many as 21 in the first half before finishing on a 15-0 run to cut the deficit to 31-26.

ASU cut it to two to open the second half when Devontay Ward found Hughes underneath the basket. Hughes converted the lay-in and was fouled, converting the 3-point play to make it 31-29.

But that was as close as Albany State could get.

After the Bobcats (3-2) went back up by double figures, the Rams cut the deficit to eight twice, once on a Michael Green 3-pointer with 6:44 left, then on a pair of Green free throws at the 5:32 mark.

However, Georgia College beat the Rams in transition and left with a relatively easy victory.

“We’ve got to come out a lot stronger,” Snearl said. “We were down by 21 and we scored so little in the first half. You can’t win the game like that.”

Ward finished with a double-double to lead the Rams, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Green finished with 11 points, while Hughes added nine.

Albany State shot 31 percent (16 of 51) from the field.

“Georgia College did an excellent job of executing down the stretch,” Moore said. “But our youth is still showing up and we’ve got to do a better job of having patience on offense.”

The Rams are back in action Saturday when they entertain Point University at 3 p.m.