COLUMBUS — Georgia Southwestern was outscored 20-2 to start the second half and couldn’t complete the comeback, falling 74-67 at Columbus State on Monday night.

The Cougars scored 33 points off 27 Hurricane turnovers, and GSW (5-5, 1-2) shot 40 percent for the game.

“We didn’t learn our lesson from a month ago against Lander, and we didn’t do a good job managing little bit of a crisis,” said coach Mike Leeder. “They came out with a good start to the second half, and we didn’t stop their run. When we righted the ship, we had dug too deep of a hole.”

Against Lander, Leeder said GSW trailed by one at the half before falling behind 15 to start the second half.

Columbus State didn’t help the Hurricanes by making shooting 61 percent in the second half.

After beating undefeated Francis Marion on Saturday, Leeder said the things his team did then to win, it did right the opposite.

“It’s a lack of maturity on our team,” he said.

Anthony Sargent and Chris Rawls each had 16 points as five players scored in double figures for the third-straight game. Ten of Sargent’s points came in the comeback.

The Hurricanes fell behind 49-32 over the first six minutes of the second half when Evan Mobley’s 3-pointer stopped the run.

GSW clawed its way back to within four on a couple of occasions, the last at 69-65 on a Sargent jumper. They didn’t make another field and goal and had a turnover the final 1:09.

Rawls continued to dominate, collecting 15 rebounds. Despite the double-double, Leeder said Rawls missed a lot of easy shots under the basket and had his hands on several other rebounds. He also said the guard play was “poor.”

“We can’t win on the road like that, and it doesn’t get any easier,” he said.

Sargent, Damayrius Adside and Marcus Scott all finished with four fouls, and three Cougars had four or more, including Javarus Stewart who fouled out with a team-high 15 points in the final seconds.

The Cougars (3-5, 1-1) shot 49 percent for the game and were 1 of 11 in 3-pointers; GSW made 5 of 18 threes.

GSW travels to Armstrong Atlantic on Wednesday. The Pirates won at North Georgia, 74-67 on Monday, and are 9-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play.