Arnold’s last-second heroic 3-point shot sends Jaguars to Elite Eight, where they will face Chico State
By Carlos Rodriguez | Co-editor in chief
Eight and three-tenths of a second.
That’s the amount of time the Augusta University men’s basketball team had left to save its season while being down by two points to Queens University in the Southeast Regional Championship on Tuesday night.
Guard Tyree Myers dribbled down the right side of the court and handed the ball off to the team’s sharpshooter, Miguel Arnold, who took one dribble and pulled up from 3-point range, knocking down a contested shot to put the Jags (31-3) ahead 77-76 with 1.7 seconds left.
With no timeouts left and no option but to throw a full court heave that misfired, Queens (30-4) saw its season come to an end as the No. 5-ranked Jags knocked off the No. 4-ranked Royals, sending the fans inside Christenberry Fieldhouse into a frenzy. Once the buzzer sounded, fans stormed the court to celebrate the special moment.
“It was a heck of a college basketball game,” said Queens coach Bart Lundy. “Their kid made a tough one. This was a national championship type game, and I hope Augusta can go win it. We’ll be pulling for them.”
Augusta wins its first regional championship in more than a decade. The last time the Jags won was the 2009-10 season. AU avenged its last regional championship loss that came at the hands of Queens, which won back in the Royals’ gym during the 2018-19 season.
“I’ve been here for 18 years, and I have never won a game of this magnitude,” said AU Coach Dip Metress.
Coming into the game with a perfect 19-0 homeport record, AU needed a big crowd for their final home game of the season, and the Jaguar fans did not fail to show their presence and support, packing Christenberry with more than 2,000 fans, the most Augusta has had all season.
AU had a balanced scoring effort with Ja’Queze Kirby leading the way with a team-high 20 points and seven rebounds. Tyshaun Crawford scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds as well. Arnold added 14 points to go along with the most important basket of the game. Myers and Darren Lucas-White nearly had double figures with nine points each.
Queens had an opposite offensive outing with a scoring punch of a trio of guys in Jamari Smith with 33, Jay’Den Turner with 22 and Kenny Dye with 17.
This game was a back-and-forth affair between two of the best teams in the nation. The atmosphere was incredible, and it has been argued by many as the best game of the Division II national tournament.
“We knew this was a tough Queens team,” said Myers. “We knew were going to have to give it 40 minutes to come out of here with a win.”
It was close throughout with six points being the largest lead either team had. Queens jumped out to a 7-5 lead after a pair of baskets from Smith and a layup by Turner. Myers found Troy Cracknell wide open in the corner for a 3-pointer that tied the game at 12 with 13:37 remaining.
Myers once again found another Jaguar wide open. This time it was Arnold who hit a 3-pointer in transition to go up 18-15. Dye made a four-point play after being fouled while making a 3-pointer as Queens went up 29-24 with 4:03 left.
AU was able to tie the game at 31 after a 5-0 run from a 3-pointer by Kirby and layup by Cracknell. The Royals went on their own 5-0 run after Smith converted an and-one shot and Turner followed it with a layup.
In the final minute of the half, Kirby knocked down a free throw as the Jags went into the locker room down 36-32.
The Royals struck first in the second half when Turner made a layup. Kirby answered with a 3-pointer to get the Jags within three points.
“He was dynamite,” said Metress of Kirby. “He banged some threes in when we were struggling.”
At the 14:24 mark, AU took over the lead after Kirby blew by his defender and threw down a dunk to go up 43-42. The teams exchanged baskets until Smith scored on two-straight possessions for the Royals, making a layup and a 3-pointer to go up 54-49 with 10:27 left.
“He (Smith) made shots everywhere on the floor,” said Lundy. “What you don’t think about is most of the game he’s down there battling Crawford.”
Despite being down, Kirby reenergized the team after getting a putback dunk on a Cracknell miss to cut the lead to 58-54.
Augusta took over the lead again after Myers forced a turnover and hustled down court and flipped a pass back to Crawford who dunked and gave the Jags a 61-60 lead with 6:16 remaining.
“I seen him running with me and said ‘let me reward the big fella’,” said Myers.
A few minutes later Crawford returned the favor, dishing out a pass to Myers for a 3-pointer to go up 70-66.
Queens cut the lead to 72-70 with 2:32 left to play after Smith connected on a corner 3-point shot. Smith scored four-straight points off free throws and a layup to put Queens back ahead 74-73 with less than a minute left. Crawford tied the game at 74 after knocking down a free throw with 40 seconds left.
After Crawford’s free throw make, the Royals killed some time off the clock to try and waste as much time as possible. Dye was able to maneuver through the lane and get a layup to fall over Crawford to put Queens up 76-74 with 8.3 seconds.
The Jaguars called a timeout to set up the most important play of this season, the rest is history. Myers and Arnold executed the play to perfection as Arnold knocked down the 3-pointer to win the game. Myers provided a brush screen on the handoff, and Crawford was in the area trying to clear out space as well. Arnold had just enough of a good look, and that’s all he needed.
“We run this play all the time in practice,” said Arnold of the game winner. “It was just a great feeling.”
Despite the loss, Queens shot 53.6-percent from the floor, compared to AU’s 50.9-percent. What hurt the Royals was the Jaguars shot better from 3-point range (47 percent to 30 percent) and knocked down more free throws (15 to 10).
The Elite Eight will be played at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., with the quarterfinal round on March 22, semifinals March 24 and the championship March 26.
The final eight teams have been re-seeded and Augusta (31-3) was given the No. 3 seed and will play No. 6 Chico State (22-4) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, March 22 at 9:30 p.m.
The other quarterfinal matchups are No. 1 Nova Southeastern (31-0) vs No. 8 Black Hills State (25-7), No. 2 Indiana University of Pennsylvania (32-2) vs No. 7 Hillsdale (23-7) and No. 4 Bentley (25-4) vs No. 5 Northwest Missouri State (31-5).
Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carrodriguez@augusta.edu.
AU’s Tyree Myers (2) sets up Tyshaun Crawford for a dunk in the Jaguars’ 77-76 win over Queens University in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional at Christenberry Fieldhouse. At the top of the page, Miguel Arnold (5) launches the game-winning shot; Myers watches from the corner after he set up Arnold for the big shot. (photos by Madison Keel)
Tyshaun Crawford hoists the Southeast Region championship trophy. Dip Metress, kneeling, will be taking his fourth AU team to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. (photo by Chris Rickerson)
Jaguar guard Miguel Arnold prepares to cut down the regional championship net. (photo by Chris Rickerson)
After the net came down, AU Coach Dip Metress celebrates with his team, including Tyshaun Crawford (0) and David Viti (3). University President Brooks Keel is at left. (photo by Madison Keel)
Darren Lucas-White gets a hug after he scored nine points and helped the Jaguars to the narrow victory. (photo by Chris Rickerson)
AU’s Ja’Queze Kirby (13) lets fly a jumper over Queens’ Jamari Smith (55). (photo by Chris Rickerson)
