SAVANNAH, Ga.- In their final tuneup game before starting the regular season, Sadiq Muhammad had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds but it would not be enough as Savannah State fell to West Georgia in a exhibition game played at Tiger Arena.

SSU trailed by 11 with 6:39 left in the second period but battled back using a 11-3 run to pull within 63-60 with 2:41 remaining.

After a layup and a pair of free throws by West Georgia's Deonta Stocks increased the Wolves lead to 67-60, SSU answered with a 3-pointer from Demarcus Bryant and a layup from Khalen Pinkett to make the score 68-65 with 35 seconds left. Sandwiched between Bryant's 3-pointer and Pinkett's layup was a free throw by UWG's Thomas Higginbotham.

The Tigers would not score the rest of the night as West Georgia's Taylor Cochran made three of four free throw attempts to end the game.

Bryant came off the bench to add 16 points for the Tigers and Pinkett chipped in 14 points for Savannah State. Junior college transfer Brian Pearson grabbed 10 rebounds.

The crowd of 1,820 saw the Division II Wolves, who had a 18-12 record a year ago, shoot 51.9 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes as they raced to a 36-27 halftime advantage.

Muhammad opened the contest with a dunk to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. UWG responded with baskets by Cochran, Alex Abreu and Stocks to build a four-point lead and would lead the rest of the way.

SSU remained in striking distance for most of the first period.

The Tigers trailed by eight but closed their gap to 21-16 with 7:43 left after back to back layups by Bryant.

UWG began to pull away with seven unanswered points to open up a 28-16 cushion with 5:23 remaining for their largest lead of the contest.

SSU would get as close as six in the closing seconds of the half before Stocks made a layup and a free their to push the visitors edge to nine points.

Stocks had a game-high 27 points to lead West Georgia.

The Wolves ended the game shooting 42.4 percent from the field.

Savannah State, who out-scored the Wolves 38-35 in the second period, held West Georgia without a field goal the final 2:35 of the game.