Jaguars overcome halftime deficit, winning nailbiter over Lander; AU women triumph too

By Carlos Rodriguez | Sports editor 

The Augusta University men’s basketball team successfully completed a comeback in an 81-78 win over Lander on Wednesday night, Jan. 11, at Christenberry Fieldhouse. 

The No. 9 ranked Jaguars (5-0, 14-1) trailed the Bearcats (2-2, 10-4) by 14 points at halftime and outscored them 50-33 in the second half to remain perfect in the Peach Belt Conference. Augusta has now won 27 in a row at home.

Tyshaun Crawford and Miguel Arnold were the Jaguars lone double-digit scorers. Crawford led with 26 points and six rebounds. Arnold finished with 23 points, scoring 18 of them in the second half. Tyree Myers also added nine points and six assists. 

“Tyshaun held his spot so he caught the ball where he wanted to,” said AU Assistant Coach Zach Tinkham.  “He had great touch around the rim and was phenomenal from the free throw line.  He came through with some clutch buckets.”

Lander was paced by Jared Sherfield, who finished with 21 points. Dominic Stanford followed with 18 points, while Chandler Lindsey and Jacob Cooper scored 12 and 11 points, respectively. 

The Bearcats came out of the gate ready for the challenge against the PBC preseason favorites. Their defensive presence caused turnovers for AU on three of its first four possessions. They would jump out to a 17-10 lead early after Cooper made a layup with 12:53 left.  

A dunk by Crawford and 3-pointer by David Viti would cut the lead to four, but this would be as little as the lead got the rest of the half.  

Navaughn Maise gave the Bearcats an 11-point lead with 4:17 remaining after picking the ball off and dishing it to Stanford, who made a layup to go up 35-24. 

With the time running down in the half, Cooper pump faked and got Viti to foul him on a mid-range jumper. Cooper then knocked down the two free throws as the half ended with Lander up 45-31. 

Stanford and Sherfield led Lander at the half with 15 and 14 points, respectively, while Crawford led Augusta with 13 points.  

In the second half, the Bearcats had a quick bucket by Lindsey to push the lead to 16, but Arnold and Darren Lucas-White answered with a 3-pointer and layup to bring it down to 11.  

The Jaguars’ defense was far better in the second half early on but after a few buckets to trim the lead, Lander would come right back and have an answer. The Bearcats’ lead stayed in the double digits for the first 10 minutes of the half. 

But then Myers cut the lead to four after scoring six points in 30 seconds. First, he picked off a pass and went full court for a fastbreak layup, then on the next possession he knocked down a 3-pointer while being fouled and made the free throw. This cut the lead to 65-61 with 8:42 left. 

Suddenly, the Jaguars were back in the game.

Arnold gave AU their first lead of the game on a 3-point make from the left wing. The Bearcats answered but once again Arnold struck, hitting yet another 3-pointer as AU went up 69-68 with 5:58 remaining. The PBC 3-point record holder made five 3-pointers on the night. 

Crawford pushed the lead to five for the Jaguars on a second chance opportunity, grabbing an offensive board and finishing a layup as they went up 73-68 with 3:54 left to play. 

After a couple of free throw makes, the Jags were up four, but Lander’s Noah Dunn made a 3-pointer with 46 seconds to cut it to 77-76. 

Lucas-White got sent to the line and knocked down both of his attempts to go back up by three. The Bearcats called a timeout with over 20 seconds of time to work with to try and tie the game. AU’s defense appeared to eliminate what Lander wanted to actually run and it burned a lot of time off the clock before they could only settle with a layup made by Cooper to bring the Bearcats within one point with less than five seconds. 

Viti received the inbound pass and was quickly fouled. He made both free throws to go up 81-78. With no timeouts left, the Bearcats had to inbound the ball from full court and turned the ball over to Viti, but it resulted in a turnover by Viti as Lander regained possession with two seconds left.  

Crawford guarded the inbound and his 7-feet-1 inch frame made it a problem for Cooper, who is 5-foot-10, as a difficult shot from halfcourt had to be taken and misfired, as the Jaguars completed the comeback. 

“Darren and Viti made great plays for us,” Tinkham said. “Both made great steals defensively and moved the ball really well on the offensive side.  Both of them are two good communicators which really help our team defense.  We would not have won without them.”

The Jags were outshot by the Bearcats in field-goal percentage and rebounding. Lander shot 57.1-percent from the field while AU shot 56.3-percent, and the visitors outrebounded Augusta 23-20. Free throws came in handy as the Jaguars made 20, five more than Lander.  

Our seniors got us back in the game last night.  We were resilient and chipped away a little at a time.  We got the ball inside to Tyshaun which also led to us getting open shots on the perimeter.  We would not have gotten back in the game without our crowd.  Our crowd was electric and helped carry us throughout the night.

In the women’s game, Kennedi Manning had 14 points and six rebounds, and Kiera Howard had 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Jaguars (4-1, 11-4). It was a tight game throughout, but AU clinched it with an 18-13 run in the fourth quarter. Two free throws each by Howard and Mone Florence in the last 42 seconds put the game in the win column for Augusta. Lander (0-4, 3-10) was led by Anne Secrest with 12 points.

AU Coach Celeste Stewart said first-quarter defense made the difference.

"It started with our team's defense in the beginning of the game,” said Stewart. “Kiera was able to get steals and attack the defense in transition which helped us to a good start. Kennedi found her flow offensively early in the game which was also beneficial. To finish the game, we didn't have a great shooting percentage, but we were able to out rebound Lander by eight. Defense and rebounding are a must for our team. If we do those things well, I feel good about what we are doing." 

Augusta will play two straight road conference games against Columbus State on Saturday, Jan. 14, and against Georgia Southwestern on Wednesday, Jan. 18. Games will tip off at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., respectively. AU returns to Christenberry Fieldhouse on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 3:30 p.m. to take on Flagler. 

“Columbus State is going to set a lot of ball screens and shoot a lot of 3s,” Tinkham said. “It is always a tough place to play, so we are looking forward to the opportunity. We must be able to execute our ball screen coverage.”

Head Coach Dip Metress returns to the bench after serving a five-game NCAA suspension.

Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carrodriguez@augusta.edu.

AU guard Tyree Myers goes up for two of his nine points in the narrow win over Lander. At the top of the page, teammate David Viti fires a trey. (photos by Madison Keel)

Kiera Howard drives to the bucket on a night when she had 11 points and 14 rebounds to help the Jaguars past Lander, 60-54. (photo by Madison Keel)