AMERICUS, Ga. -- Playing their first home game in month, the Georgia Southwestern State University men's basketball team held off a second half Albany State University rally to pick up a 71-66 victory in the Storm Dome Thursday evening.

 

R.J. Sessions and Kwei Lartey scored 17 points apiece to lead the Hurricanes (2-5) and help snap a three-game losing skid. Albany State suffered its fourth-straight loss and fell to 3-8 this season.

 

How It Happened: GSW scored the first nine points of the game while holding Albany State scoreless over the opening three and a half minutes.

 

The Hurricanes led 16-4 following a Kobie Williams layup with 13:59 remaining in the first half, and the largest lead of the evening came after a Sessions dunk put GSW on top by 14 points, 31-17, with 4:38 left before the break.

 

GSW shot 50 percent from the floor over the opening 20 minutes and led 38-27 at halftime after forcing 13 Albany State turnovers.

 

The Golden Rams started the second half on a 16-5 run, taking all of six minutes and 25 seconds to erase the Hurricanes halftime lead. From there GSW was slowly able to work the margin back to eight points, 60-52, with 5:36 on the clock. Albany State had one more push left and was within a point with 90 seconds to play, but Andre Statam delivered a clutch 3-pointer and Jamari Dean and Lartey combined for four consecutive free throws to keep the Golden Rams at bay.

 

GSW finished with a 29-26 edge on the glass, had six more assists than the Golden Rams (16-10) and utilized eight additional bench points (19-11).

 

Who Stood Out: Lartey connected on 50 percent of his shots, hitting 5 of 10. Statam accounted for a team-high seven rebounds and Quenten Taylor led all players with six assists. Dean scored 12 points in 12 minutes of action.

 

Albany State was led by Michael Green and Napoleon Harris. Green scored 16 points and Harris had a game-high eight rebounds.

 

Up Next: It's nothing but Peach Belt Conference games the rest of the way for the Hurricanes, starting with Francis Marion University (5-1, 1-0 PBC) on Monday morning in the annual Sumter County Schools Education Day. Tipoff is at 11 a.m.