Behind West, Jaguars defeat Georgia College in women's hoops for third win in a row

By Q. Hughes | Sports writer 

The Augusta University women’s basketball team defeated Georgia College 56-43 on Monday, Feb. 8, at Christenberry Fieldhouse to increase the Jaguars’ winning streak to three games.

With the win over Georgia College, the Jaguars improved to 3-0 in the conference and 4-3 overall, while the Bobcats dropped to 1-9 both overall in the conference.  

Senior Zairya West led the Jags with 19 points, earning all of her points in the first half. Junior Jaelyn Autman came off the bench and posted double figures with 11 points, four rebounds and a steal. Sophomore Kennedi Manning also added nine points and grabbed eight rebounds.

“We met our defensive goals,” said AU coach Millette Green. “Our defense fueled our offense on multiple occasions when we went on scoring droughts.  We are still trying to get into an offensive rhythm after not practicing for over a month as a team.”

Augusta shot the ball 40.8 percent from the field while Georgia College shot 29.1 percent. The Jaguars shot better from the line as well, shooting 76.5 percent to the Bobcats’ 46.7 percent. 

“We wanted to limit the touches and open looks for number 1 (Harper) Vick and. number 24 (Keyonna) Wesley,” said Green of AU’s defensive strategy.  “I think we executed the defensive game plan. We held them both of them to a total of 16 points.” 

In the first quarter, the Jags came out strong on both sides of the ball. Giving tight defensive, forcing turn overs, and contested missed shots only gave the Bobcats the opportunity to score two points. The two points came at the 6:19 mark in the quarter and AU held them scoreless for the remainder of the quarter to go into the second quarter up 18-2.

Georgia College woke up in the second quarter and had a stronger performance as the visitors tried to fight back and cut Augusta’s lead. The Bobcats outscored the Jaguars 12-10. The Jags still had a big lead despite a better offensive showing from Georgia College, going into the half up 28-14.

The game followed a pattern. Augusta won a quarter then Georgia College won the next. Then it repeated again in the second half.

The third quarter was all Augusta’s, holding Georgia College to only nine points and scoring 14 to outscore them by five. The Jaguars largest lead of game came in the quarter, after senior Stella Logbognon made a layup to go up 42-21 with 2:08 remaining in the quarter. Going into the fourth AU led 42-23. 

Georgia College tried to make another run in the fourth as they outscored Augusta in the quarter again. The Bobcats had their best quarter, scoring 20 points but allowed AU to score 14 points. Despite being outscored in the quarter, it wasn’t enough to defeat Augusta as the Jags came out with the 13-point victory.

In the past three victories, the team has been outscored in the fourth quarter. Green spoke about those fourth quarter performances.

“We watched our previous two fourth quarters against Francis Marion and Young Harris. We had too many mental lapses and missed too many high percentage shots in the fourth quarter. We need to minimize our mistakes and do a better job executing in the fourth quarter.”

Although having a better game from the field in the fourth quarter compared to AU’s previous two games, Green stressed the need for the Jaguars to close the game better defensively.

“We gave up more points in the fourth quarter than the first half,” she said. “We have to stay locked in and finish games better.”

Augusta will be on the road today, Feb. 10, at UNC Pembroke (1-6 in the PBC, 1-7 overall), for another conference matchup at 5:30 p.m.

“Defensively, we must stop Pembroke’s transition attack and disrupt their offensive flow,” said Green. “We must utilize our defense to create transition points.  We need good ball and player movement to create driving lanes and post touches.”

 The game will be livestreamed on pbcsportsnetwork.com.

 Contact Q Hughes at Qhughes@augusta.edu.

Kennedi Manning (24) goes up for a layup; she totaled nine points and eight rebounds in the win over Georgia College. At the top of the page, Zairya West (0) led the way for AU with 19 points. (photos by Carlos Rodriguez)