Augusta men defeat Bowie State 73-70 in Education Day game
By Carlos Rodriguez | Sports writer
The No. 13 ranked Augusta University men’s basketball team defeated Bowie State 73-70 on Thursday, Dec. 8, at Christenberry Fieldhouse in front of 3,027 fans, including more than 2,100 Richmond County fifth graders for the annual Education Day game.
AU (6-1) was led by Miguel Arnold, who finished with 19 points and six rebounds. Tyshaun Crawford added 15 points and eight rebounds while Darren Lucas-White had 12 points and five rebounds.
Mark Bradshaw scored 17 points for Bowie State (2-8), and Joel Webb had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Lucas-White, a Capitol Heights, Md., native, grew up less than 30 minutes from Bowie State and has known some of the Bulldogs players for years.
“I had played against and with at least five of them,” said Lucas-White. “We used to go at it in high school and even elementary and middle school. It’s good to see that they’re still playing basketball because a lot of people don’t play basketball at this level.”
The lively energy and screams inside Christenberry Fieldhouse from the elementary students was a great experience for Bowie State Cach Darrell Brooks. He even mentioned adopting the Education Day theme for his program to host in years to come.
“It was so much fun you couldn’t hear anything,” said Brooks. “We’re going to do this type of game next year at our place. It was terrific.”
Both teams traded buckets early on in the first half, exchanging leads several times. A dunk by Tyshaun Crawford regained the lead for AU as they went up 23-21 with 6:13 left. This was a start of an 11-0 run by the Jaguars.
After Crawford’s dunk, Lucas-White scored four points in a span of four seconds. He was fouled and knocked down two free throws then after his second make, the Jaguars set up a 1-3-1 zone press and forced a turnover that he picked up the steal and finished the layup. Lucas-White finished with three steals.
“I just wanted to come out there and be more aggressive because the last few games I’ve been more passive on the defensive end,” said Lucas-White. “I just wanted to be more efficient out there and get more steals and just cause a little bit of havoc on the defense end.”
The 11-0 run ended with Miguel Arnold tipping in a layup miss by Ja’Queze Kirby. Bowie State’s Quinton Drayton answered for the Bulldogs with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 32-24 with 4:30 remaining.
Kirby gave AU its biggest lead of the game after connecting on his third 3-pointer of the half. He played valuable minutes for the first time since the Jaguars opening weekend which helped out tremendously.
At the half, Augusta led Bowie State 42-31. Kirby and Arnold led with nine and eight points, respectively.
One of the Bulldogs emphases on the defensive end was to maintain Crawford, who they held to only seven points in the half and only four field goal makes throughout the game. They consistently trapped him and sent him to the line several times.
“We wanted to come out and give good full court pressure and take away looks inside so we wanted to double the big guy, we wanted to be physical with him, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that,” said Brooks.
The first opening minutes of the second half was very stagnant on the offensive end for the Jaguars. A couple turnovers and missed shots and the Bulldogs capitalized on that and trimmed the lead to three points four minutes into the half.
“We finished the first half the right way then we come out the second half and four of the first five possessions we don’t get a shot up,” said AU Coach Dip Metress. “They trapped us then go back to trapping Tyshaun so it was a great strategy. It’s a winning strategy to be honest with you.”
The Jags picked up several fouls early on in the half, sending the Bulldogs to the line then it flipped and then it was the Bulldogs who were sending the Jaguars to the line. Both teams suffered from foul trouble and were both in the bonus with a lot of time left in the game.
AU shot 23-32 from the free throw line and missed seven attempts in the half.
“If you miss seven free throws at home, you give yourself a chance to lose the game,” said Metress.
Bowie State took their first lead of the half at the 6:04 mark after Bradshaw knocked down a 3-pointer to put them up 60-58. Two minutes later AU’s David Viti tied the game at 62 after putting back an offensive rebound for a layup.
“That was a huge play by Viti,” said Metress. “Credit Viti because he picked up fouls, then came and picked up another foul. Usually in the past Viti would be so down on himself he wouldn’t be able to make that play and that ended up being a huge play.”
Lucas-White had a similar play as Viti’s that tied the game at 66 with 1:47 left to play.
Arnold gave the Jaguars a 69-68 lead after making a big 3-pointer off a feed from Tyree Myers with 1:09 remaining. The Bulldogs pushed the ball up the floor quickly to answer back as Anthony Carpenter dished the ball to Joel Webb for a dunk to put Bowie State back ahead 70-69 with 58 seconds left.
“I thought the second half we did a better job taking care of the ball,” said Brooks. “First half we had some key turnovers where we were playing well, and they trapped us and we weren’t prepared. They played some 1-3-1 which we haven’t seen all year so I told my guys that was on me at halftime.”
The next possession Crawford and Lucas-White connected on a key play to give AU the lead. Crawford had the ball and was getting double-teamed and Lucas-White noticed and decided to cut to the basket and received the pass and went up for a layup to go up 71-70 with 39 seconds left.
“I just go out there every day and just be a sponge out there,” said Lucas-White. “Anything that people need me to do either rebounding, defense or even score I’m able to do that.”
The Bulldogs couldn’t find an answer after having two chances and sent Myers to the line, and he made two free throws as AU won 73-70.
“I told my team ‘Hey fellas you went toe to toe with the champ, but you got to knock the champ out’ and we just didn’t do enough to knock them out but I’m really proud of my guys,” said Brooks.
Bowie State forced AU to turn the ball over 18 times, the most they’ve turned the ball over this season. Turnovers and missed free throws hurt the Jaguars the most in this game. The Jags shot 45.8-percent from the field while the Bulldogs shot 44.9-percent.
Augusta has a quick turnaround as they host Georgia Southwestern (5-2) on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3:30 p.m. for the first Peach Belt Conference game of the season.
Metress expects Southwestern to play like Bowie State with a lot of physicality.
“They’re physical, trap, press,play with a chip on their shoulder and they’re going to give us a test no question,” said Metress.
Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carrodriguez@augusta.edu.
Augusta’s Tyree Myers (L) feeds teammate Darren Lucas-White, who made the go-ahead basket for the Jaguars. At the top of the page, David Viti fires a jumper for AU. (photos by Madison Keel)
