Savannah State executed its offense to near perfection in the second half of its 72-66 win over Gardner-Webb on Saturday in a neutral-court meeting of the Hoosiers Classic.

The Tigers hit 14 of 16 shots from the field in the final 20 minutes, scored 44 of their points in the paint and another 19 from the free-throw line in McKenzie Arena.

"You're going to win a lot of games when you shoot like that," said Savannah State coach Horace Broadnax. "We were executing against their zone, we stuck it in the post and we got good high-low action against it."

The Tigers (2-5) were led by 19 and 15 points and seven rebounds apiece from Rashad Hassan and Arnold Louis.

Jason Dawson scored 16 points and Laron Buggs added 13 for Gardner-Webb, which will play the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga today at 3 p.m.

"We shot the ball real well and we played together as a team," said Hassan, whose team trailed 35-34 at halftime. "We got the ball moving, got layups and executed the plays really well tonight."

The announced crowd of 198 may have counted everybody in the building -- twice -- which led to quiet moments and forced teams to generate their own emotion and energy.

"It was kind of weird," Hassan said. "I was at the free-throw line and I heard the lights buzzing. I never heard that before. It kind of felt like practice."