Augusta men's hoops team scores 70-54 win over Fayetteville State
By Carlos Rodriguez | Sports editor
The No. 2 ranked Augusta University men’s basketball team defeated the Fayetteville State Broncos 70-54 on Sunday, Nov. 20, at Christenberry Fieldhouse.
The Jaguars picked up the win in front of an electric crowd of 1,637 that gathered for a special honoring of former AU men’s basketball coach and athletic director Clint Bryant. During halftime, AU President Brooks Keel introduced Bryant and honored the court being officially named the Clint Bryant court. in honor of his work over the last 34 years in the athletic department. Former Bryant players were also in attendance.
“Happy for Coach Bryant; it means the world to me,” said AU coach Dip Metress. “He’s the guy that got me as a player into college and coaching.”
The Jags (3-0) were led by Tyshaun Crawford’s double-double effort with 26 points and 12 rebounds, also swatting three shots. Tyree Myers finished with 16 points and seven rebounds and Miguel Arnold scored 11 points.
AU was without starter Ja’Queze Kirby who tried to play through an ankle injury, but only ended up playing less than three minutes. David Viti stepped into the starting lineup in place of Kirby.
“Nothing really changes, mindset never changes, warmup never changes, so I just try to do the same thing that I do every other game,” said Viti. “The other guys picked it up for Kirby offensively, because you know I couldn’t really hit a shot today except for the dunk, but defensively I had to fill in for rebounding and stuff like that.”
Cress Worthy led the Broncos (1-5) with 20 points and nine rebounds. Nakwan Kitchen-James was also in double figures with 11 points.
The Broncos came into this game ready for the challenge and fearless, jumping out to a six-point lead after Kaleb Coleman knocked down a 3-pointer to go up 16-10 with 12:25 left.
Their presence from the 3-point line was made known in the first half as they shot 53.8-percent from deep, connecting on seven 3-pointers. The Broncos cooled off in the second half, making only one 3-pointer.
“They shot a high percentage,” said Metress. “A couple of them were tough shots, but we had some defensive rotation issues. Especially without Kirby, we have to defend or we’re not going to outscore anybody.”
AU’s Darren Lucas-White tied the game up at 27 on a fastbreak opportunity. Tyree Myers grabbed a rebound on the defensive end, pushed the ball up the floor and slipped a bounce pass between two defenders to Lucas-White who layed it up.
The next possession Tyshaun Crawford gave the Jags the lead after bullying his defender in the paint and throwing down a dunk to lead 29-27 with 3:45 left in the half.
Fayetteville State regained the lead but a 9-2 run to close out the final two minutes of the half sent the Jaguars into the locker room up 38-32.
Crawford nearly achieved his double-double in the first half with 16 points and seven rebounds.
“They were missing their starting post player, so their guy that started picked up three fouls, the backup picked up three fouls, so obviously we wanted to keep going to Tyshaun,” said Metress. “We hurt them because they were in so much foul trouble.”
Augusta dominated the first eight minutes of the half, going on an 18-4 run. During the run, Viti put their lead into double digits after he was open after cutting to the rim and scored after faking out a Bronco to go up 42-32. Despite only finishing with four points, Viti spoke about his role in the team’s success.
“We have Miguel, Tyree and Tyshaun, I know those guys are going to be our scorers and I try to add however I can offensively but I kind of have to be the stereotypical gritty and tough guy,” said Viti. “I just play my role, I know my role and me playing my role helped us get to the national championship so hopefully we can do it again.”
During the end of the run Timmy Sellers gave the Jaguars a 20-point lead after grabbing an offensive board and faking his defender for an easy put in.
“Timmy was dynamite,” said Metress. “Timmy didn’t play the second half of the last game because Tyshaun was playing well and he’s a great teammate. He doesn’t hang his head. He was really good and got a great offensive rebound and finished it. He did a great job guarding the ball screen too.”
The Broncos were able to trim the lead to as little as 13 twice but couldn’t get passed that. Metress started noticing some rushed offense from his team and wanted them to slow the game down by setting a target number of passes before a shot attempt is taken.
“Five means we have to make five passes before we shoot,” said Metress. “We yell “five” we literally count out the passes because it slows the game down. We were up 12 or 14, the last thing you want to do is shoot a quick one. Kind of every time we run five, we get a good shot.”
The rest of the game remained consistent as the Jaguars continued to hold onto their lead comfortably.
The most exciting play of the game for AU came with less than two minutes left when Lucas-White dished a pass to Viti cutting to the rim and Viti rose up and threw down a contact dunk on a Fayetteville State defender.
“We practice that in practice, with a spread offense the backdoor is always open,” said Viti. “Usually, I’m not always dunking because Tyshaun’s always down there, but Tyshaun wasn’t down there this time, so I got a clean look,” he said jokingly.
Augusta had their best game of the season from the free throw line, shooting 90 percent. Crawford shot an impressive 8 of 8 from the line. For the overall game AU shot 45.3-percent from the field, compared to FSU’s 34.4-percent performance.
The Jaguars will be on a three-game road trip with games at Benedict College on Nov. 22, Catawba College on Nov. 30 and Virginia Union Dec. 3.
AU returns to the home floor on Thursday, Dec. 8, as the Jaguars host Bowie State University at 11 a.m. for the annual Education Day game.
The start of Peach Belt Conference play begins after that game on Saturday, Dec. 10, as AU hosts Georgia Southwestern at 3:30 p.m.
Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carrodriguez@augusta.edu.
Tyree Myers (2) goes in for a left-handed layup during Augusta University’s 70-54 win over Fayetteville State; Myers had 16 points and six rebounds for the Jaguars. At the top of the page, Timmy Sellers (21) sends home a left-handed hook shot in the lane as teammate Miguel Arnold (5) prepares to rebound. (photos by Madison Keel)
Miguel Arnold (L) goes up for a three-pointer over Fayetteville State’s Cress Worthy; Arnold had 11 points in Augusta University’s triumph over the Broncos. (photo by Madison Keel)
