Behind Myers and Kirby, Jaguars down Flagler to advance to PBC semifinals

By Carlos Rodriguez | Sports editor

The Augusta University men’s basketball team picked up an 85-75 win over Flagler in the quarterfinals of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament on Thursday, March 2, at Christenberry Fieldhouse. 

The No. 2 seeded Jaguars (24-5, 14-4) were led by senior Tyree Myers who scored 20 points, knocking down four 3-pointers. Ja’Queze Kirby scored 17 points while being all over the floor, grabbing six rebounds, three steals and two blocks. 

AU will play sixth-seeded Columbus State in the semifinals on Friday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. Friday’s winner will play the winner of No. 1 USC Aiken vs No. 4 Lander on Sunday for the championship at 1 pm. 

Columbus upset No. 3-seeded North Georgia 74-69 behind 27 points from guard Demierre Black in Thursday’s last quarterfinal matchup.

Myers, the senior from Baltimore, Md., had one of his best games of the season, and that certainly pleased his coach.

“He (Myers) was really good tonight,” said AU Coach Dip Metress. “He was in the gym shooting last night at 8:30. Tyree’s ready. He told me the other day, ‘It’s Tournament Time.’ Happy to have him.” 

AU’s David Viti had a strong showing, too, scoring 15 points. The Jaguars were able to get the job done despite their two leading scorers, Tyshaun Crawford and Miguel Arnold, only scoring 12 and six points, respectively.  

“Before the Flagler game, I told Viti and Kirby that you have to take more shots because we can’t rely on those two (Arnold and Crawford) to take shots, and they had a great game plan against them,” said Metress. 

No. 7-seeded Flagler (13-17, 7-11) was led by Omar Figueroa’s hot touch from beyond the arc, scoring 21 points, making five 3-pointers. Kyle Young scored 17 points and Jaylen Lemons added 13. 

The game started off slow. By the first media timeout, at the 15:39 mark, the Jags only led 6-5. It was after the media timeout that AU started playing at a faster and more energized pace. 

Viti came in and knocked down a 3-pointer quickly, followed by Kirby blocking a shot on one end then sprinting back and making a layup on the other end. Viti scored another bucket, making a layup to give AU a 13-5 lead with 12:39 left. 

Flagler’s Lemons and Young answered with jumpers of their own to cut the lead to 13-10, but the Jaguars would end up going on a 13-0 run. The run didn’t start off flashy, beginning with two free throw makes by Crawford, but it ended with an and-one fastbreak layup by Viti to put AU up 26-10 with 8:03 remaining.  

Two layups in 20 seconds by Figueroa and Jax Bouknight gave Flagler some momentum, especially after Bouknight’s which was an and-one to cut the Jags lead to five at the 1:14 mark. 

Myers and Figueroa traded 3-pointers before the end of the half as the game remained a five-point lead for the Jags as they were up 35-30. 

“In the first half we had four guys and three of them older guys, that let something they weren’t doing affect how they play on the other end,” said Metress. “I addressed those guys, and then I didn’t like our makeup when we came out in the second half. And I brought them back in the hallway and gave them one. We were feeling sorry for ourselves. I told them after the game we have to get that fixed before whatever time we practice tomorrow. They’ll respond but they did in the second half.” 

In the second half, Figueroa continued his hot performance, making a 3-pointer early on to cut AU’s lead to 37-35. 

The Saints got the game within one, trailing 49-48, but the Jaguars had a key stretch where they scored and caused turnovers on three-straight possessions. During the sequence, Kirby made a layup and a 3-pointer and Viti knocked down a 3-pointer, putting AU up 57-48 at the 10:22 mark.  

AU went up 10 after Crawford made a layup with 7:18 left. Myers increased that lead to 13 with a jumper, putting them up ahead 69-56 with 5:56 remaining. A steal and finish by Kirby continued to increase the lead as they went up 77-63. 

Flagler tried fighting back but the Jags continued to answer. The nail on the coffin came with 45 seconds left when Myers was inbounding the ball and threw a full court hail mary to Kirby who got open and dunked the ball to go up 83-72 as they winded up closing the game 85-75. 

AU shot the ball well from the line, only missing three attempts, shooting 82.4-percent. They shot 54.4-percent from the field and held Flagler to 44.4-percent. 

The Jaguars swept Columbus State during the regular season, but the Cougars (14-15) had their comeback win over the Nighthawks on Thursday night. Columbus State will try to play the spoiler’s role again Friday night.

Both games will be televised by the Peach Belt Conference network.

Jaguar women close out season

The AU women lost to North Georgia 80-69 in the quarterfinals of the PBC Tournament at Georgia Southwestern in Americus on March 1.

Kennedi Manning closed out her career with 23 points and six rebounds. Autumn Phillips added 16 points and Tomiyah Alford 14.

The Jaguars, under interim coach Celeste Stewart, finished the season 17-12. It was their best record since going 24-9 in 2015-16.

 Contact Carlos Rodriguez at CARRODRIGUEZ@augusta.edu.

Ja’Queze Kirby had 17 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals in AU’s win over Flagler. At the top of the page, Tyree Myers scored 20 points and dished out six assists. (photos by Madison Keel)

Autumn Phillips had 16 points as the AU women closed out their 2022-23 campaign with a quarterfinal loss to North Georgia in the Peach Belt Tournament. (photo by Madison Keel)