The Shorter men’s basketball team used strong second half performances to get to the NCCAA South Region Tournament championship game — and the Hawks used that same pattern to win the crown.

Playing in Saturday’s title game against Southern Wesleyan in Franklin Springs, the Hawks once again caught fire in the final 20 minutes as they downed the third-seeded Warriors 87-75 to earn a second straight trip to national tournament competition.

Sophomore point guard Dedric Ware poured in a game-high 27 points with the help of six 3-pointers to help Shorter earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCCAA Division I Championship in Winona Lake, Ind.

Shorter (18-11) will begin play in the NCCAA tournament on Wednesday against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

The Hawks (18-11) swept through the regional, winning its three games by an average of 14 points. Saturday’s final was not as close as the final score suggested, as the Hawks led by as much as 27 in the second half after leading by only seven at the half.

Anthony Banks added 20 points and Kenny Leverette 11 for Shorter, which started the second half on a 9-2 run to build a 14-point lead with 17:10 to go in the game before outscoring Southern Wesleyan 31-18 over the next 12:40 to put the contest away.

Ware sank a trio of 3-pointers during that stretch and Walter Hill, who finished with nine points, capped the spurt with a 15-footer and a 3 on back-to-back possessions to make it 79-52 with 4:30 to play.

All that was left for the Hawks to do from that point was to hoist the South Region Championship banner.

Shorter downed a former Southern States Athletic Conference rival for the crown, but again had to battle through a nip-and-tuck first half to set the stage for a second half explosion.

The Hawks led by as much as nine in the opening frame, but spent much of the half within one or two possessions of the Warriors. Shorter took that nine point lead, 39-30, on a pair of Banks free throws at the 1:04 mark of the period, and went into the halftime locker room up 39-32 after a SWU bucket as time expired.

Southern Wesleyan couldn’t build on the little momentum it had heading into the half. Ware was a big reason for that, following up a 13-point first half with 14 second half points on the shoulders of three 3-pointers, two of which came on consecutive possessions and answered a mini run by the Warriors that had drawn SWU to within seven. Ware’s two treys turned a seven-point Shorter lead into a 56-42 cushion with 13:30 left.