Bell Ringer male athlete of the year: Demitri Gardner, AU men's basketball
Justin Gray | Sports editor
The Bell Ringer’s 2024 male athlete of the year award goes to Demitri Gardner of the Augusta University men’s basketball team.
In the 2023-24 season, Gardner, a sophomore, averaged 17.9 points in Peach Belt Conference play en route to a second team all-conference selection. He led the Jaguars to a 17-12 record.
Gardner came back and started his junior campaign with a 22-point performance in an exhibition game against Division I Clemson, which made the Elite Eight last season before losing to Alabama.
He’s one of the leading scorers at this level, averaging 22.9 points per game, the 19th-highest scoring average in all of NCAA Division II and the highest in the Peach Belt Conference so far this season.
Early in the 2024-25 season, the Winchester, Va., native has had career-highs with 38 points against Chowan and 11 rebounds against Virginia Union.
If this high level of play continues, he will be a frontrunner for PBC Player of the Year.
Honorable mentions for Male AOTY:
Avery Jaynes: The cross-country and track star for the Jaguar dominated all year, including a first-place finish in the Peach Belt Conference meet and he followed that up with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional meet.
Jordan Robertson: Robertson kept his name in the mix for a lot of the year and quietly had a phenomenal season. The success became more evident when he became the first ever AU cross-country all-American in school history. Robertson finished 32nd in the national championship in Sacramento, Calif. That was the best finish ever by an AU runner at the nationals.
Cole Stevens: Stevens led the AU men’s golf team to the Southland Conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I regional. Stevens, who is from Johannesburg, South Africa, was named both player and newcomer of the year in the Southland Conference.
Contact Justin Gray at jusgray@augusta.edu.
Demitri Gardner (2) has become AU’s go-to scorer and is averaging nearly 23 points per game through the team’s first 11 games of the 2024-25 season. (photo by Lydia Williams/the Bell Ringer) At the top of the page, Gardner shows his jump shooting form. He is the Bell Ringer male athlete of the year for 2024. (photo by Paula Toole/AU Athletics)
