Arnold leads AU men to comeback win over Emmanuel
By Carlos Rodriguez | Sports editor
A 41-17 run to close out the final 15 minutes of the second half propelled the 11th-ranked Augusta University men’s basketball past Emmanuel College 91-77 on Saturday, Dec. 31, at Christenberry Fieldhouse.
This was the final regular-season non-conference game for the Jaguars as they improved to 11-1 while the Lions fell to 7-6.
Miguel Arnold led AU with 26 points to go along with six rebounds. Arnold was 10 of 11 from the field.
Teammate Tyshaun Crawford scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Ja’Queze Kirby and Darren Lucas-White added 14 and 12 points, respectively.
“I work out every day; I’m in the gym every day. My teammates trust me,” said Arnold. “I see one go in, and after that I got it running.”
The San Juan, Puerto Rico, native has been known for his 3-point shooting abilities over his career at AU, but this year he’s shown his ability to drive the ball inside and score in the paint.
“I have to be able to put it on the floor and make a play not only for myself but for others,” said Arnold. “Me being able to do that has opened up a lot of things for me.”
In this game, Arnold knocked down two 3-pointers and currently has 343 career 3-point makes, sitting one make shy of tying the Peach Belt Conference record of 344.
Emmanuel had five players in double figures. Chris Dees and Kendall Latney led with 14 each, while Jasper Gibson, Kelvin (KJ) Jones and Tavarus Webb had 13 apiece.
Coming into the game, Jones was the No. 2 leading scorer in NCAA Division II at 26.9 points per game.
“Credit to them, they made shots,” said AU coach Dip Metress. “We were really worried about No. 1 (Jones) because he’s one of the leading scorers in the country, and our guys kind of accepted the challenge to guard him. We got so focused on KJ that we didn’t put our attention on other guys.”
Augusta jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first half in the first seven minutes. Four minutes later the Lions took over the lead after Jarrett Boyd knocked down a 3-pointer to give Emmanuel a 24-23 lead.
AU’s David Viti responded with two unanswered 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put the Jags up 29-24 with 8:53 left.
Both teams traded baskets and exchanged leads several times before the Lions found some separation and went up by seven at the half, leading Augusta 45-38.
The key to Emmanuel’s lead at the half was the eight 3-pointers they made.
“They missed 12 shots the first half and had six offensive rebounds,” said Metress. “We didn’t have many defensive rebounds in the first half because we didn’t stop them. Second half I think our size affected them a little bit.”
In the final half, the Lions stretched their lead to 10 (60-50) at the 15:32 mark after a layup by Jones.
This would be the peak for Emmanuel, as from this point on the Jaguars would begin their 41-17 run to close out the game.
The run started out with an out of bounds play, as Tyree Myers threw an alley-oop pass to Ja’Queze Kirby, who flushed it down.
Like Arnold, Myers is also approaching a PBC record, for career assists. He had seven assists against the Lions, totaling his career number to 569. The PBC record is 574.
Lucas-White gave AU the lead after taking his defender to the lane and making a layup to go up 69-67 with 6:38 left.
Crawford had dunks on back-to-back possessions that initially was the dagger for the Jags to close out the victory as they went up 81-70 with 2:05 remaining.
Free throw makes by the Jaguars and a dunk by Kirby in the closing seconds sealed the game as Augusta would win by 14.
“We stayed relaxed; we didn’t panic,” said Arnold. “We just trusted our defense and each other, and that’s how we closed it out.”
AU shot 72.4 percent from the field in the second half while Emmanuel shot 33.3 percent. Augusta also held the Lions to only three 3-point makes in the half.
The Jags will be on the road for the next two games, squaring off against Georgia College (4-7, 0-2) on Wednesday, Jan. 4, at 7:30 p.m. and at Young Harris (11-0, 2-0) on Saturday, Jan. 7, at 3:30 p.m.
Metress spoke about the importance of playing this game against Emmanuel as they were a team that shot many threes and how it’ll prepare them for conference play against 3-point heavy teams.
“Georgia College is a team that traditionally shoots a lot of threes,” said Metress. “Young Harris in
“We haven’t faced that as much this early in the year,” said Metress. “Georgia College is a team that traditionally shoots a lot of threes, Young Harris in the past shot an enormous amount of threes, Lander shoots 32 threes a game, so we’ll examine how we gave up threes in the first half.”
AU returns to Christenberry Fieldhouse on Wednesday, Jan. 11, to play Lander at 7:30 p.m.
The Jaguars have now won 26 consecutive games at home.
In the women’s game, Emmanuel defeated AU 64-59. Tomiyah Alford led the Jaguars (8-4) with 17 points. Jeanetta Elder paced EC (5-5) with 16 points.
The AU women’s team will also play at Georgia College on Jan. 4.
Note: Since Saturday’s game, the AU men have moved up to No. 10 in the NABC rankings.
Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carrodriguez@augusta.edu.
Ja’Queze Kirby (13) takes the ball to the hoop in AU’s 91-77 win over Emmanuel College. At the top of the page, Tyshaun Crawford stuffs home two of his 21 points as the Jaguars won their 26th in a row at home. (photos by Madison Keel)
AU’s Kiera Howard (3) goes up for two of her nine points in the Jaguars’ 64-59 loss to Emmanuel. (photo by Madison Keel)
