Jaguar women's basketball team defeats Francis Marion after eight-game hiatus
By Q. Hughes | Sports writer
The Augusta University women’s basketball team defeated Francis Marion 60-51 on Wednesday, Feb. 3, in the Jaguars’ first game back after not playing for more than a month.
The last time the Jaguars took the floor for a game was Dec. 19 at Lander. Since that game they had eight straight games postponed, including all seven of their conference games for the month of January, due to COVID-19 issues within the team.
“We’ve been on a wild rollercoaster,” said AU coach Milette Green. “It was good to finally come together and compete. I thought they were ready to go from start to finish.”
With the win over FMU, Augusta improved to 2-3 overall and 1-0 in the conference, while the Patriots dropped to 0-5 overall and 0-4 in the conference. It was the Patriots’ first game back as well after five straight games had been postponed due to COVID-19 issues within their program.
AU had three players that ended up scoring in double digits. Senior Zariya West led the Jags with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists. Junior Kiera Howard scored 14 points and three steals, and sophomore Kennedi Manning totaled 12 points and eight rebounds.
“Our guards were able to get in the lane and score and were able to get the ball to our post scorers,” said Green.
Francis Marion connected on more threes than Augusta, but it wasn’t enough as the Jags overall shot better from the field and produced more scoring inside. AU shot 47.1 percent from the field while FMU shot 31.1 percent and outscored the Patriots 34-18 in the paint.
“Our game plan was to pound it inside,” said Green “We knew we had the size advantage and we wanted to take advantage of the inside and I thought we did a good job of that.
The first quarter was back and forth with neither team gaining much of an edge. FMU was able to go up 17-12 but the Jags sparked a 9-0 run. Senior Stella Logbognon started the run after a layup make, followed by a three-pointer by West. Junior Mechella Davis finished a layup in the final minute of quarter to finish the run as AU went up 19-17 going into the second quarter.
Augusta outscored Francis Marion in the second quarter 17-11 to go into halftime with a 36-28 lead.
The Jaguars turned in another strong performance in the third quarter as they outscored the Patriots again, 16-8 to go up 52-36 heading into the last quarter.
In the fourth, AU obtained their biggest lead of the game after West was fouled from the three-point line and knocked down all three attempts to push their lead to 55-37. FMU was able to get in a run and cut the lead as little as nine in the final minute but was not enough as the Jags came out with the 60-51 victory.
“We shot the ball really well in the first three quarters,” said Green. “In the fourth quarter we only shot 10-percent. Thankfully we had an early lead that we were able to maintain. That helped us out in the fourth quarter.”
Green mentioned the team and the Peach Belt Conference are in the mix of figuring out rescheduling the postponed games in order to attempt a postseason run.
“I seriously doubt we’ll get the full 16. Our goal is to play the 11 games to be eligible for a conference tournament.”
Augusta will be back home at Christenberry Fieldhouse, Feb. 6 at 1:30 p.m. against Young Harris (2-3, 2-3) for another conference matchup.
(Note: Sports editor Carlos Rodriguez also contributed to this story.)
Contact Q. Hughes at Qhughes@augusta.edu.
Kiera Howard (3) had 14 points, three rebounds and three assists as the AU women stopped Francis Marion in their first game in six weeks. At the top of the page, Zairya West (0) led the way for the Jaguars with 18 points. (photos by Justin Brosemer and Carlos Rodriguez)
