Crawford leads AU past Cougars; Jags will play Lander in PBC final

By Joshua Picklesimer | Sports writer

 The Augusta University men’s basketball team took home a big win over Columbus State College 88-67 Friday night, March 3, in the semifinals of the Peach Belt Conference tournament.

The No. 2-seeded Jaguars will take on No. 4 Lander in the championship on Sunday, March 5, 1 at Christenberry Fieldhouse.

Lander upset top-seeded USC Aiken to give the Bearcats the opportunity to play for the conference championship. Augusta and Lander split the season series, so this will decide the season series and conference tournament champion all in one.

AU was led with strong performances from Tyshaun Crawford scoring 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, as well as Miguel Arnold who had 12 points and went 2 for 3 from the 3-point line. Chris Britt also gave the Jags a strong performance off the bench with 14 points.

 Augusta (25-5) led the game off on a 6-0 run, with all points by Arnold, and his coach certainly approved.

“Miguel started off the game very aggressive” said AU Coach Dip Metress. “They were guarding him different yesterday so I was glad to see him come out and be aggressive early”.

Columbus State (16-14) answered back quickly though with Grant Howard scoring a layup and quick three at 16:15 mark.

Throughout the game Howard was the answer for Columbus State as he was their leading scorer with 18 points.

The game was back and forth for the teams until the 12:56 mark when David Viti and Darren Lucas-White were subbed in and bot made immediate impacts. With Viti making a jumper on his first touch and Lucas-White scoring back to back layups one of which being a and-1 for the Jags pushing their lead to 21-11 at 10:21 mark.

The highlight performance of the first half for the Jags though was Crawford scoring 13 first half points. Columbus State struggled to have an answer for him sending him to the free throw line several times throughout the night where he clearly felt comfortable going (7-7) on the night from the line.

Augusta took a 40-28 lead going into halftime.

In the second half Augusta’s game plan was to get the ball to Crawford in the post, which he turned into assists due to being heavily guarded. “They were doubling and triple teaming Tyshaun,” said Metress. “We were able to then make them pay with inside out passes.”

Augusta capitalized on their opportunities shooting 59 percent from the field and 60 percent from 3.

Britt came into the game atthe 15:45 mark and scored all 14 of his points in the second half playing 13 minutes of it.

Crawford continued to dominate as he made a tough layup at 9:30 putting AU up 42-62. They would keep they’re 20 points lead the rest of the game.

The AU center made 8 of 11 from the field and all seven of his free throws.

Lander’s Bearcats (22-8) defeated USC Aiken behind Jared Sherfield’s 31 points. Tyler Johnson led USC Aiken (22-8) with 29 points.

Howard led the sixth-seeded Cougars (16-4) with 16 points. Demierre Black added 14 for CSU.

AU shot 59 percent and held the Cougars to 40-percent shooting. The Jags owned a 40-27 advantage on the boards.

Contact Josh Picklesimer at jpicklesimer@augusta.edu.

Tyshaun Crawford (0) flushes two of his 23 points in AU’s semifinal win over Columbus State in the Peach Belt men’s basketball tournament. At the top of the page, Miguel Arnold drives for two of his 12 points. (photos by Madison Keel)