For 13 blissful minutes, it looked like Thursday’s game was going to be all Shorter.

It didn’t turn out that way.

Xavier Dawson scored 19 points and Jas Rogers added 17 as 11th-ranked Southern Poly engineered a massive comeback to beat No. 21 Shorter, 81-77, at the Winthrop King Centre.

Shorter owned a 17-point lead late in the first half and held a 10-point advantage at the half, but the Hornets charged back in the final 20 minutes to steal the win.

It was the third straight loss for the Hawks.

Rogers, who came into the game averaging a team-high 18.1 points per game, caught fire in the second half to power the rally for the Hornets (9-2, 4-0 SSAC).

Shorter (10-4, 1-2) led 64-56 with 9:05 to go before the Hornets embarked on a game-changing 16-1 spurt that spanned the next 5:47.

Marqise Wright led Shorter with 19 points while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out four assists in 39 minutes. The 6-6 junior shot 5 of 9 from the floor, 3 of 6 from three and 6 of 8 from the foul line.

Darius Steger scored 13 points (4 of 5 from three) and Montagious Brown had 10 for Shorter, which finished 10 of 17 from the three-point line and 55.6 percent from the field for the game.

The Hawks host Brewton-Parker College on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Southern Poly women 57, Shorter 54

Marisa Stotler scored a game-high 20 points as No. 20 Southern Poly maintained its perfect record by posting an SSAC win over Shorter.

Stotler, a junior transfer from Boise State University, had 10 points in each half and was 9 of 15 from the floor for Southern Poly (15-0, 6-0 SSAC).

Kelly Ellison scored 16 points and had four assists and Tamara Weatherby finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Lady Hawks (8-5, 0-2 SSAC), who had their four-game winning streak snapped at the hands of their nearby rivals from Marietta.

Shorter led by as many as six in the first half, but Stotler engineered an 8-0 run with six points to reclaim the lead for Southern Poly, 18-16, with 6:06 remaining in the half.

The Lady Hawks responded with a 9-2 spurt to take a 25-20 lead at the 3:47 mark, but that was the last significant lead that Shorter held.

The Lady Hawks host Brewton-Parker College on Saturday at 2 p.m.