Hawks open Gulf South play with road win

Shorter got a double-double performance from Ricky Knight Jr. and some big defensive stops down the stretch in the second half to open Gulf South Conference play with a 62-59 win at West Florida on Thursday night.

Knight finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks (2-2, 1-0 GSC) as the senior went 6-of-11 on 3-point attempts. Shorter trailed 25-24 at the half before outscoring the host Argonauts 38-34 over the final 20 minutes.

Ian Reith also reached double figures for the Hawks with 10 points, all coming in the second half. Raphael Houssou added nine, and Grant Atchley contributed eight. Shorter made 11 total 3s and went 13-of-20 at the free-throw line.

The Hawks will continue its conference road trip Saturday when they visit Valdosta State at 4 p.m.

In the women’s game earlier Thursday:

West Florida 90, Shorter 64

Shorter fell behind in the first half and could never dig itself out of the hole in a tough road loss to open conference play.

The Hawks (0-3, 0-1 GSC) trailed 23-16 after one quarter, but West Florida put some distance between the teams on the scoreboard by outscoring Shorter 23-11 in the second quarter to take a 46-27 advantage to the half. The home team then put it out of reach with a 28-11 third quarter.

Shorter’s leading scorer in the loss was Derrica McCall with 15 points. Keyra Peterson and Lindsey Hardin each contributed 14 points, and Peterson pulled down nine rebounds. McCall also added seven assists.

The Hawks will look to bounce back when they visit Valdosta State on Saturday at 2 p.m.