AMERICUS - The Georgia Southwestern men's basketball team allowed a season-high 24 offensive rebounds to Montevallo University on Wednesday evening in the Storm Dome and the visiting Falcons made the most of the extra scoring opportunities, rallying to defeat the Hurricanes, 75-72.

GSW dropped its third straight game and fell to 8-12 overall and 4-9 in Peach Belt Conference play while Montevallo won its seventh straight game and improved to 14-6, 10-3 in the PBC.

A 9-0 run midway through the first half helped give GSW its first double-digit lead of the evening as the the Hurricanes led 31-21 with eight minutes left before the break.

Montevallo clawed back to within three points on three different occasions but an Adam Thoseby 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the period allowed GSW to extend its margin to six points, 50-44, at the half. Southwestern shot a sizzling 63 percent over the opening 20 minutes and drained 9 of 17 from long range. 

The Hurricanes picked up where they left off to start the second stanza by going on a 9-2 run to open their largest lead of night, 13 points, with 14:21 remaining.

Montevallo answered once again. This time by scoring nine unanswered points in less than three minutes to shave the GSW lead to four.

Following a pair of ties, GSW relinquished the lead for good at the 3:47 mark when Terrell Lipkins put Montevallo ahead, 69-68.

Brandon Price scored a quick layup with 14 seconds left to pull GSW within a point, 73-72, and Montevallo missed both of the ensuing free throws on the other end of the floor to keep the door open for late GSW heroics, but the Falcons came up with the loose ball off the second miss and sank their next two attempts from the charity stripe to stretch their lead to three points with seven seconds left.

Price was fouled before he could get set for a shot and the Hurricanes finished short of a much needed victory.     

Thoseby led the way for the Hurricanes with a game-high 20 points. Price added 15 points and five assists. Chandler Thomas knocked down 5 of 6 shots on the way to his 14-point evening. Damien Leonard pulled down a game-high seven rebounds. 

The Hurricanes shot over 50 percent (52.3) for the sixth time this season and topped their PBC-leading average of 9.5 3-pointers per game by knocking down 11. However, by surrendering 24 offensive rebounds they surpassed their previous high of 18 recorded at UNC Pembroke on Jan. 23.

Bryant Orange was 0 for 6 from beyond the arc and 6 of 19 shooting overall, but managed to lead Montevallo with 18 points and matched GSW's Leonard with a game-high seven rebounds. Tevin Worthy scored 14 and Vaughn Autry chipped in 10 to go with six rebounds. Malik Fields added 10 points. Lipkins, the Falcons' leading scorer, was held to seven points behind 3 of 12 shooting. He entered the game averaging 22.2 points and was making 51 percent of his shots in league play.

Southwestern travels to Morrow, Ga., on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. game against Clayton State.