Georgia Southwestern sweeps AU in basketball doubleheader
Justin Gray | Sports editor
AMERICUS—It wasn’t a fun trip to Georgia Southwestern for either the Augusta University men’s or women’s basketball teams as both lost on Saturday, Jan. 20.
The Jaguar men fell 69-64 and the women fell 74-56 on Jan. 20.
The AU men have had an unprecedented start to the Peach Belt Conference schedule, falling to 1-5 in the conference. This loss was the toughest to swallow.
The Jaguars played well to start this one, getting out to a 21-16 lead and continued to build on it. They even got the lead to 12 with 2:30 remaining in the half.
At halftime the Jaguars had a 36-28 lead.
The second half did not go well for the Jaguars as they had scored only four points at the 12:18 mark. Amid that scoring drought, AU gave up the lead to a storming Hurricane team.
The game stayed tight all the way through, and Augusta had a shot to tie it with 10 seconds on the clock, but Ja’Queze Kirby’s shot was off the mark, and it became another loss for the Jaguars.
The AU men can learn a lot from a loss like that, even as much as it stings. Those are the kinds of games the Jaguars must start pulling out to be where they want at the end of the season.
The Jaguars got in some tough situations, first by losing Freshman Zyere Edwards to a knee injury with 6:40 left in the first half.
Their next hurdle was Kirby picking up his fourth foul with over 10 minutes left to play in the game. This was significant for many reasons, but the Jaguars couldn’t get any points out of Kirby in the second half.
John St. Germain III continued his outstanding play putting up a career high 17 points in 30 minutes on the floor. He also totaled five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
David Viti followed Germain with 14 points. Viti was on the court all but three minutes of the game.
“This is not from a lack of being in the gym,” said the senior from Buford. “We are in the gym every single day. I‘ve learned in my career that if you stick to it eventually they are going to start falling.”
Max Amadasun had a clear height advantage in this matchup, and the box score reflected it as he grabbed 14 rebounds, seven of those being offensive. He’s been racking up the rebounds in his last few games.
“Biting down. Not giving in,” said the center from Dublin, Ireland. “Not fading when things got tough kept us in the game. If we could’ve done that for 40 minutes, we would’ve won that game, but we didn’t.”
Georgia Southwestern was led by Jalen Johnson, who had 29 points.
The Jaguars are scratching and clawing, trying their best to get wins and there's no doubt it will start to happen.
Tonight was a tough environment to play in and the Jaguars played their best defensive game to date. The students from Georgia Southwestern were in the AU players’ ears all night and it got chippy towards the end.
“When you have Augusta on the jersey, that’s why you have students in the hallway dropping F-bombs on me,” said AU Coach Dip Metress. “I’m OK with that. We’re Augusta basketball. It’s supposed to be exciting to beat us. We have to own it.”
The Jaguars will have a chance to play spoiler next week as they take on Lander on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at Christenberry Fieldhouse following the women’s game. Lander is currently ranked 17th but will likely move up in the polls this week after an 18-point victory over No. 5 North Georgia.
Now to the women’s side.
The Jaguars came into this game on a seven-game winning streak and looked to keep it going.
They got off to a fast start, leading 18-16 after the first quarter.
The second quarter proved that this was going to be a war as Georgia Southwestern fought back taking a 39-37 lead at halftime.
The Jaguars came out of the half and much to their dismay watched the Hurricanes heat up and the Lady Jaguars found themselves down by eight by the end of the third quarter.
They would try to stay in it in the fourth quarter, but the game slipped away from them as they fell by 18 on the road.
Autumn Phillips had herself a night leading the Jaguars with 18 points, Tomiyah Alford followed with 10. Alford led in rebounds with seven.
It’s always tough to win on the road especially against good teams like Georgia Southwestern. This loss drops AU to 5-1 in the conference and now third place.
“It was a tough loss for us tonight,” said AU Coach Celeste Stewart. “We played solid most of the game but towards the end of the third and fourth quarter we struggled to score and they made shots. We must learn from this game and be better in the next one.”
The Lady Jaguars, now in second place in the Peach Belt, have a huge game coming up as they take on PBC Lander University at Christenberry Fieldhouse. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
Contact Justin Gray at jusgray@augusta.edu.
AU’s Kennedi Manning (24) feeds teammate Tomiyah Alford (12) during the Jaguars’ loss to Georgia Southwestern. At the top of the page, David Viti (7) had 14 points for the Jag men in a narrow loss to the Hurricanes. (photos by Justin Gray)
