By Carlos Rodriguez |Sports writerFor the fourth time this season, the Augusta University men’s basketball team avenged a loss they suffered on the road. This time it was against Georgia College who defeated AU back on Jan, 25, in Milledgeville, 69-66.On Saturday, Feb. 29, at Christenberry Fieldhouse, the Jaguars defeated the Bobcats in overtime 84-76. It was the last regular season game for AU, and the program honored senior Rafael Monteiro for Senior Day.Monteiro, the senior from São Paulo, Brazil, led the way with 25 points and 10 rebounds while also scoring his 1,000th career point in the game. A transfer, Monteiro only has been able to play two seasons at AU.“I work a lot on my game every day, and I think my hard work pays off,” said Monteiro afterwards.Sophomore Miguel Arnold posted 16 points and went six-for-six at the free throw line. That played a vital role in order to get the victory. Sophomore Tyree Myers scored 14 points and made three out of his five three-point attempts as AU went undefeated in February for the second straight season.Augusta finishes the regular season 21-7 overall and 16-4 in the Peach Belt Conference and extends its winning streak to 10 games. All four of AU’s conference losses came on the road, and they defeated all four, Columbus State, Lander, UNC-Pembroke and Georgia College at home.“It was a great game and I’m proud of our team’s effort," said AU Coach Dip Metress. "It was definitely a game we could’ve tanked it."The Jags home court advantage has showed as they went undefeated at home throughout conference play. This is also the second consecutive season that Augusta goes undefeated in the month of February as the team posted a 9-0 record during the month.Monteiro got the Jags on board with a contested layup make in the opening minute. Entering the game, Monteiro only needed four points to reach 1,000 career points. At the 17-minute mark, Monteiro hit an and-one fadeaway jumper that got him to the 1,000-point mark. Monteiro converted on the free throw and put the Jags up 10-2.Austin Sloan, a freshman, was the spark that helped the Bobcats get back in the game after going on an 8-0 run. Sloan trimmed Augusta’s lead to 20-16 after knocking down a three-pointer with 8:34 left to play. A minute later Sloan knocked down another three-pointer to cut AU’s lead to one and capped off his run with two free throw makes to give Georgia College a 21-20 lead with 6:40 remaining.The Bobcats fed of off Sloan’s run and took advantage after a couple of AU starters went to the bench with foul trouble. At the 3:26 mark the Bobcats went up 31-26 after Brandon Thomas hit a three. In the final minute Wesley Simpson and Justin Cave knocked down three-pointers to give the Bobcats a 43-29 lead heading into the half.“We had a really nice stretch of about eight to 10 minutes where we were making everything,” said Georgia College Coach Mark Gainous. “We had all the momentum going into halftime.”Georgia College made nine three pointers in the half, shooting 53 percent from three which led to their great first half run. Simpson and Cave both had 10 points for the Bobcats at the half. Monteiro led the Jags with 10 points in the half.“At halftime we had to adjust our ball screen coverage,” said Metress. “They made a bunch of shots. We were getting hurt with ball screen defense.”In the second half the Bobcats went up 16 after Simpson converted on an and-one layup and knocked down the free attempt to go up 49-33 with 18:07 remaining. Arnold immediately went on a 5-0 run, hitting a three-pointer and a pull-up jumper to cut the lead to 11 at the 17:27 mark.Throughout the second half the Bobcats lead kept holding onto a double-digit lead but with under seven minutes left Monteiro managed to bring it down to 61-55 after knocking down a one-foot jump shot. Myers knocked down a big three-pointer that cut the Georgia College’s lead to 65-62 with 3:40 remaining.“Tyree hit a huge one," Metress said. "He’s a tough dude. He played really well."Two minutes later Monteiro was double teamed and found Darren Lucas-White open for an and-one layup that knotted things up at 65.“We have a lot of players that can play and score,” said Monteiro. “It’s important to diversify because then it’s harder for them to guard us.”
With 1:33 remaining, Georgia College’s Thomas was fouled by Lucas-White, who fouled out on the play. Thomas knocked down both free throws to put the Bobcats up 67-65. With 11 seconds remaining, sophomore center Robert Barlund fought for a rebound and put it back for a layup to tie things at 67. The game remained tied at 67 and headed into overtime.“They kind of tightened up on us on defense,” said Gainous on AU’s approach against his Bobcats. “I felt like they out-rebounded us in the second half.”In the overtime period, Myers scored the first bucket, knocking down a three-pointer with 4:07 remaining. Simpson answered with a pull-up jumper as the Bobcats trailed 70-69 with 3:37 remaining. Simpson stole the ball on AU’s next possession which led to Cave knocking down a three to go up 72-70 with under three minutes left to play.Free throws played a key role for the Jags in the overtime period. Monteiro tied things up at 72 with two free throw makes with 2:19 left. AU lost Myers due to fouling out after diving for a loose ball at the 1:52 mark. Troy Cracknell, plagued by foul trouble all night, knocked down three free throws with 1:41 remaining to give AU a 75-73 lead. Arnold hit two free throws the next possession, giving AU a 77-73 lead.“Free throws were huge,” said Monteiro. “Especially after Troy got fouled and made three free throws. We work on that every day, and that’s how you win big games.”With 44 seconds remaining Jordan Thomas went to the foul line and knocked down two free throws, cutting AU’s lead to 77-75. Cracknell and Arnold both hit two more free throws each that gave the Jags the 81-75 lead with 24 seconds of play remaining. Monteiro netted the last two points for AU off of free throws, closing out the win on his Senior Day.“I give credit to Coach Metress and the best coached team in the conference,” said Gainous. “I give those guys all the credit. They have winners, they’re tough, they deserved to win.”Georgia College was led by the sophomore Simpson, who scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Thomas and Cave added 19 and 14 points, respectively.The Jags outscored the Bobcats 55-33 in the second half and overtime period combined. AU beat Georgia College in three-point percentage by just a hair, shooting 40 percent to the Bobcats' 39.3. Overall, Augusta shot the ball at a 44.9-percent clip from the field while Georgia College made 41.1-percent of their field goals.“We knew this game was going to be tough going into it,” said Myers, the sophomore from Baltimore, Md. “Georgia College is a tough team. Hats off to them. They always play hard and give us different defenses.” “Defense was definitely the key to winning this game in the second half. If we didn’t get any stops then we would’ve loss just like at Georgia College.”Despite it being the last regular season home game, the Jags are the No.2 seed and will be back on their home court Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. as they host the first round of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament in another matchup against No. 7 seed Georgia College.Myers believes the team defense throughout the whole game will be vital to winning the first-round matchup.“Defense from the beginning," he said, "Sustain defense for 40 minutes, instead of 20 or 12, and we’ll be OK.”