Down by as many as 13 in the first half, the Georgia Northwestern Bobcats would ride the hot shooting of freshman Tavish Reynolds to a 67-64 win over visiting Welch College Tuesday night in Rossville.

Reynolds would hit seven three-pointers and finish with 23 points. Alex Miller, Bud Todd, and Richard Olsen all added 11 points each, while Kendrid Sides paced the visiting Flames with a game-high 27 points.

After falling behind 24-11 with 11 minutes to go in the first half, GNTC would turn up the heat on defense, going on a 23-12 run to give the Cats a 36-34 lead at the intermission.

The Cats would outrebound Welch 41-32 in the home win, 19 coming on the offensive end.

Miller helped preserve the win by blocking a three-point attempt by Welch's Jake Manning with four seconds to go. A second rushed attempt would fall well short as the Cats claimed the win.

Freshman Hunter Ivester grabbed 10 rebounds and collected three steals for GNTC (8-17, 0-7), who ended a three-game slide and are now 6-5 at the Rossville Athletic Center this season.

The Bobcats have hosted area cheer squads at their home games, and are now undefeated in Rossville when area schools send their spirit leaders. Rossville Middle School sent their squad on January 25 when GNTC topped Macon State. On Tuesday, it was LaFayette Middle School cheerleaders who showed their support.

The win was the 490th of head coach David Stephenson's 25-year coaching career.

“We really wanted to give him his 500th (win) this year,” said freshman reserve Andrew Johnson. “However, we’ve been doing a lot of growing this season and it might not happen. We did the math, though. If we win out, the regionals, district, and nationals, he would get his 500th win with the national title game.”

Georgia Northwestern closes out the regular season in NJCAA Region XVII Saturday in Rossville as the Cats and Lady Cats host Middle Georgia Tech. The next week, the NJCAA Region XVII post-season tournament will be held at Middle Georgia Tech in Warner-Robins as two teams will earn bids to the NJCAA National Tournament.

A team that is no stranger to the national stage is the Lady Cats. They earned a bid last season losing in the first round to Montgomery College-Rockville (MD). The defending region champion will open things up at 2 p.m. as they play for a share of the regular season region title. A win by the Lady Cats will make Georgia Northwestern co-champions with West Georgia Tech.

If the Lady Cats win Saturday afternoon, a coin toss would be held before the regional tournament the following week to determine whether Georgia Northwestern or West Georgia Tech would win the top seed in the event.