Lucas-White, Myers lead No. 11 Jags past Ga. College

By Carlos Rodriguez, sports editor

The No. 11 ranked Augusta University men’s basketball team defeated Georgia College 69-63 Saturday, Jan. 9, at Christenberry Fieldhouse in their Peach Belt Conference opener. 

It was AU’s first win of the new year and first game since Dec. 12. The Jaguars improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference. The Bobcats dropped to 1-1, which is also their conference record.

AU played without several players nursing injuries and illness, including starter Miguel Arnold and key reserve Troy Cracknell, leaving them with only three bench players to go along with the starters. 

“We had a couple high-level players sitting out,” said AU Coach Dip Metress.. “Credit to Jerod (Carrier), Jack (Johnson) and Timmy (Sellers) to come off the bench and give us minutes in spurts.”

Junior Darren Lucas-White led the way for Augusta with 25 points and added a trio of four rebounds, assists and steals. Junior Tyree Myers scored 15 points and dished out eight assists. Sophomore Lee Flenor added 11 points and seven rebounds and freshman John Whitehead III made his first career start, finishing with nine points and six rebounds.

Georgia College was led by junior Wesley Simpson, who scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and senior Kohl Roberts, who also scored 14 points and snatched down eight rebounds.

The past two seasons Lucas-White played the sixth-man role but has emerged into a new role this season and has led the team in scoring thus far, averaging 21.7 points per game.

“I’ve been in the right position in this new system where I can get a lot of shots or pass the ball,” said Lucas-White. “It’s more options in this system we’re in now, so I just took that and I’m going to keep going with that.” 

The game was filled with a lot of miscues for both teams. It’s what happens when you haven’t played much. For both teams it’s still the beginning of the season and in a regular year teams would normally have played around eight games before rolling into conference play. For the Bobcats, both of their games have been a part of the PBC conference schedule.

The game was back and forth up until the final minute and neither team had a comfortable lead with both never going up by double digits. 

In the first half, Georgia College junior Christian Koneman started the game off with a layup up after putting back up his missed attempt to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead with 18:59 remaining. With 10:17 remaining, Lucas-White had a notable play after Whitehead III started the fast break and gave it up to Lucas-White who maneuvered a euro-step through GC defenders and finished a layup while being fouled to put AU up 23-20.

Both teams battled throughout the rest of the half, but Augusta would go into halftime with a 37-33 lead after Myers finished a layup through contact in the final seconds.

At the half Lucas-White had 16 points and Myers had 11. Roberts had eight points for the Bobcats.

“We were just trying to get more conditioned so that first half was rough, everybody was fatigued,” said Lucas-White on the slow first half after not playing in almost a month.

Early in the second half, Myers contributed to arguably the best play of the game after executing a pick and roll with Flenor, causing his defender and Flenor’s defender to defend him leaving an opening for Myers to dish a no look bounce pass to the 6-foot-7 forward who showed off his athleticism dunking the ball. With that play the Jags went up 41-38 with 17:35 remaining.

With 10:19 remaining in the half, Roberts gave GC their first lead since 11:56 in the first half after converting on a layup to go up 50-49. They would go up 52-49 the next possession after Koneman knocked down a jumper. 

AU responded when junior Tyshaun Crawford found Whitehead III, who cut toward the paint and finished at the rim. 

Despite fouling out and not having the most productive game on the offensive end, Myers praised Crawford’s importance to the team. 

“He might’ve not had the best scoring game, but he helps other people out just by his activity on the floor,” said Myers. “He helped me out a lot out there and helped Darren a lot just by people keying in on him.”

A couple possessions later, Whitehead III made a three-pointer to tie the game at 54 with 8:11 remaining. The Augusta native made four of his eight shot attempts in his first start. 

“He was really good. Defensively he was better than he was in practice,” said Metress. “He’s going to be a good player and I’m glad he got the chance to play extended minutes tonight because it’ll only make us better for later in the year,” said Metress.

Augusta regained the lead and went up 65-60 after Lucas-White hit his third three-pointer with 1:59 remaining. Georgia College’s Jordan Thomas cut the lead to 65-63 after finishing a layup with 45 seconds left. The Bobcats had missed opportunities and started sending AU to the foul line. Myers secured the win after knocking down the final two points at the line to give the Jaguars a 69-63 win. 

“Our backcourt was really good tonight,” said Metress. “Darren and Tyree were able to keep us in the game. Those dudes are winners. Tyree is our guy, he’s the leader of our team and Darren was really good.” 

Coming into the game Augusta wanted to avenge the loss they suffered the last time they played Georgia College on their home floor which was back in March of last year during the PBC Tournament. The Bobcats eliminated the Jags after beating them 85-75 in the Quarterfinals. AU still got picked for the NCAA Tournament, but the tournament was cancelled so their last game was that quarterfinal, leaving them hungry.

“Knowing we lost to them last time that fueled us,” said Myers. “Also not having Miguel and Troy also fueled us because they thought it was going to be an easy game.”

The Jags are hopeful that they will get to play at Flagler on Wednesday, Jan. 13, but with a lot of cancellations every game is always unknown until time gets closer due to teams dealing with COVID-19 issues. They were originally supposed to open up the conference schedule at Columbus State on Jan. 6, but like many others, it was postponed. 

“It’s hard, but we just got to stay ready at all times that’s what we say, if we play tomorrow, we play tomorrow,” said Myers on the hard times to stay motivated with the unknown present and future.

After Flagler, AU will travel to Georgia Southwestern on Saturday, Jan. 16, then return to Christenberry for two straight home games against Lander on Jan. 20 and Clayton State on Jan. 23.

Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carlosjr521@gmail.com.

Darren Lucas-White (11) led AU with 25 points, including a critical three-pointer with 1:59 left in the game. (photo by Justin Brosemer)