DAHLONEGA – The University of North Georgia (UNG) men's basketball team dropped its third straight game in a 77-59 defeat against Georgia College (GCSU) at Lynn Cottrell Arena at the UNG Convocation Center on Wednesday night.

The Nighthawks are now 13-9 on the season with a 5-5 mark in Peach Belt Conference play. The Bobcats improved to 8-13 overall and 3-8 in league games.

UNG led after the first bucket on Wednesday as junior guard AJ White knocked down a pull-up jumper to make it 2-0 on the first possession.

White would finish the game with a team-high 21 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the floor with a perfect 8-for-8 mark from the free throw line.

However, the 2-0 lead would be the only lead of the game for the Nighthawks. GCSU quickly responded with an 8-0 run to go up by six points.

At the 9:02 mark in the first half, the Bobcats had built their first double-digit lead of the game as they pulled in front 23-13. A last second three-pointer from GCSU's Zyair Greene gave the Bobcats their largest lead of the night at 33-22 just before halftime.

In the second half, GCSU continued to knock down triples and grow its lead. The Bobcats hit two threes before the under 16-minute media timeout to go up by as many as 19 points.

GCSU went 8-for-20 (40.0 percent) from downtown in total Wednesday night. Meanwhile UNG struggled in that same area going just 2-for-19 (10.5 percent) from deep.

The Nighthawks would only cut the deficit to as little as 14 points in the second half as the Bobcats halted any UNG momentum time and again. 

The Nighthawks were limited to season low performances in field goal percentage (35.4 percent), three-point percentage (10.5 percent) and total rebounds (23) on Wednesday. 

Now the team will look to regroup as it heads on the road to Columbus, Ga. to take on No. 20 Columbus State on Saturday, Feb. 8. Tip-off against the first-place Cougars (17-3, 8-2 Peach Belt) takes place at 3:30 p.m.