AU men’s basketball suffers its first home loss of season, to Young Harris, 81-72

By Carlos Rodriguez | Sports editor

After Young Harris scored first in the beginning of the game, the Mountain Lions never surrendered the lead the rest of the 40-minute game, leaving Christenberry Fieldhouse with an 81-72 win over the Jags on Feb. 6.

Young Harris handed Augusta its only home loss of the season and denied AU Coach Dip Metress his 500th career win.

“It was the first time all year somebody took our spirit,” Metress said. “We can’t give up 80 points to win.”

In the loss, AU was led by junior Tyree Myers, who scored 20 points, knocking down four three-pointers. Junior Tyshaun Crawford posted 13 points, going 7-7 from the free throw line, and freshman John Whitehead III added 11 points with three three-pointers.

“In order for us to win, and they gave a good effort, but we got to get a ‘B’ effort out of our starters,” said Metress. “If we get ‘B’ effort out of our starters, then we can beat everybody.”

Off the bench the Jags received 13 points from senior Shawn Moss, who made 3 of 6 from behind the three-point line.

“He stuck his nose there and competed,” said Metress. “He played hard. I’m glad he’s taking this opportunity his senior year. He was battling the whole game. That’s all you can ask for.”

In the first half, Crawford won the tipoff, but Young Harris’ Karl Chavous caught the ball and finished quickly at the rim for the first two points of the game. 

At the 13:24 mark, AU cut the lead to 17-14 after Myers knocked down his first three-pointer of the game, continuing his hot touch from deep from the previous game. 

In a span of two minutes, Alphonso Willis scored seven straight points for the Mountain Lions, putting them up 24-17 after euro stepping through contact to finish a layup with 10:29 remaining. Willis, who finished with 28 points, leads the Peach Belt Conference in scoring with 25.3 points per game.

“He’s really been leading us on and off the court,” said Young Harris Coach Jeremy Currier. “The thing about Alphonso is people don’t understand how hard he’s had to work to come back and get healthy. He’s been out two years with injury.”

After a layup make by Crawford, AU was within three as they trailed 26-23 with 7:16 left. Right after the bucket, Young Harris went on a 11-3 run to increase their lead to double digits for the first time after Willis knocked down a three-pointer with four minutes remaining.

Augusta was able to cut the deficit to single digits before the half ended as Moss faked his defender and drilled a pull up jumper to go into halftime trailing 44-36.

At the half the scoring leaders were Willis with 17 points for the Mountain Lions and Myers with 12 for the Jags.

The second half was all about runs and momentum. Young Harris would go on a runs and increase their lead then Augusta would shorten the gap but the Mountain Lions continued to answer the punch thrown by the Jags.

Young Harris came out with a lot of energy as they did in the first half, jumping out to a 50-40 lead after layup by Chavous with 16:50 left.

Three minutes later they jumped out to their biggest lead of the game after a three by Jacorie Archie put them up 61-48.

AU went on a 14-4 run to cut Young Harris’ lead to 65-62 after Whitehead III knocked down a big three-pointer. But with a run from Augusta felt like it was always returned by another punch by Alphonso Willis and the Mountain Lions. 

Willis scored four straight points after hitting two jumpers to put them up 69-62 with seven minutes remaining. 

“I told O’Neal (Armstrong) at halftime ‘We got to hold them to 30, if we hold them to 30, we’ll win,’” said Metress. “We came out at the beginning of the second half and they got buckets. You cannot catch up with other teams getting buckets. It was not a good effort on our part.”

With around three minutes left Lee Flenor knocked down two free throws, shortening the lead to six at 72-66.

Young Harris kept expanding the lead and would go onto win the game after being sent to the line in the final minute and knocking each free throw to win 81-72.

“We have the upmost respect for Coach Metress and the Augusta program,” said Currier. “They’ve been beating Young Harris for a lot years and been at the top of our league. It’s a big win for our guys. They’ve been working hard and focusing on this game, so I’m proud of how our guys played.”

Next up, the Jaguars (6-4, 4-4) travel on Wednesday, Feb. 10, to play against UNC-Pembroke (3-3, 3-2) at 5:30 p.m. The Braves have had the past three games postponed.

Augusta’s Tyree Myers drives in for two of his 20 points in the loss to Young Harris; he also had four assists. At the top of the page, Tyshaun Crawford (0) makes a strong move to the basket (photos by Carlos Rodriguez)