Jaguar men fall to Emory in basketball exhibition, 96-86
Justin Gray | Sports writer
ATLANTA—The Augusta University men’s basketball team suffered a 96-86 loss in its final exhibition game against Emory University on Tuesday, Oct. 31, at the Woodruff Physical Education Center.
Coming into this game, Emory ranked No. 19 in the NCAA Division III rankings, so this was going to be a tough matchup. No one knew that more than AU Coach Dip Metress.
“We played like a team that thought this was going to be easy, played very bad, but hope we learn from it,” Metress said.
Emory started the game shooting the ball well from the field, capitalizing on the Augusta turnovers and found themselves up 18-9 early. Things started to turn in the Jaguars favor when Freshman Zyere Edwards knocked down a three, the first of his career. After that momentum swing, the Jaguars rolled to a 46-42 lead at the half.
In the second half, Emory became extremely efficient behind the arc and the Jaguars couldn’t slow them down. The Jaguars found themselves down by 18 with about 10 minutes to go and went on an impressive run cutting the deficit to six points, but they could never regain the lead.
The positive thing is this game doesn’t count against the record and the Jaguars can use it as a learning experience. A lot of the young talent stepped up big and filled some holes for Augusta, none bigger than Zyere Edwards, who had 21 points off the bench in his first collegiate game ever. The guard wreaked havoc on the defensive side as well, picking up a steal and locking down Emory’s best perimeter player.
“It’s surreal, just being able to play at this level of basketball,” Edwards said afterwards. “It’s already crazy enough, and to be able to produce how I did, it’s a blessing from God.”
Augusta was without their leading scorer Ja’Queze Kirby in this one, so the Jaguars needed someone to be the scorer and David Viti took over that role, knocking down shots from every spot on the floor and getting to the free throw line. Viti had 22 points, eight rebounds and three assists. He was everything for the Jaguars tonight. Kirby was unable to play because he was suffering from dry socket after having his wisdom teeth removed. He did not ride the bus to Atlanta.
Going into the game, Viti knew he would have to be the leader.
“I knew I had to step up with Kirby being gone,” Viti said. “We wanted to get a win, but this is a learning experience and we got a lot of growing pains out of the way.”
Max Amadsun, the transfer from St. Bonaventure, had 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Davion McAdam, the transfer from Northwest College in Wyoming, tossed in 10 points, making 2-of-3 3-point attempts.
The Eagles won the game at the foul line. They made 33 of 38 from the stripe. AU outshot Emory 43 percent to 40 percent. The Jaguars were 42 percent on 3-pointers, while the Eagles shot just 30 percent behind the arc. AU had 18 turnovers, compared to 15 for Emory.
Cale Martens led the Eagles with 22 points, followed by Ben Pearce with 20. Jair Knight and Ethan Fauss each had 15 for the home team.
The Jaguars will begin the regular season on Nov. 10 against the University of Mount Olive at Barton College.
Contact Justin Gray at jusgray@augusta.edu.
David Viti (7) drives to the basket for the Jaguars on a night when he had 22 points. At the top of the page, Zyere Edwards prepares to shoot in the 96-86 loss to Division III power Emory. Edwards, the freshman from Savannah, finished with 21 points. (photos by Paula Toole, AU Athletics)
