AU defeats Ga. Southwestern in first 'Stuff the Stadium' night; Flagler is next
By Carlos Rodriguez | Co-editor in chief
The No. 17 Augusta University men’s basketball team defeated Georgia Southwestern on Wednesday Jan. 19, at Christenberry Fieldhouse.
“They did a good job of driving the ball and playing off two feet, and that hurt us,” said AU coach Dip Metress. “We went zone and kind of took them out their flow a little bit. We had some guys not play particularly well but we’ll take a home win no question.”
AU (4-2, 14-2) hosted the first annual “Stuff the Stadium” night in which fans threw stuffed animals onto the court after the Jags’ first points. Over 1',100 stuffed animals were collected and will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House of Augusta.
“The first text I got was from their (Georgia Southwestern) AD that said Stuff the Stadium was awesome,” said Metress. “They’re doing it after Valentine’s Day, so that was phenomenal.”
Ja’Queze Kirby led AU with 20 points and nine rebounds. Troy Cracknell scored 17 points and grabbed seven boards. Last season Cracknell had to watch his team lose to Southwestern last year as he was sidelined due to COVID-19. He was happy to be able to help his team and get the win.
“There’s a lot of games that we owe from last year so that was another one on our list that we could knock off, said Cracknell. “We take Flagler on Saturday and they beat us twice last year so we owe them a couple.”
Tyshaun Crawford and Darren Lucas-White were also in double figures with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
To start off the game Georgia Southwestern (0-6, 4-10) got on board with a layup from Jarrett Adderton on the game’s first possession.
The next possession Cracknell made AU’s first basket, knocking down a 3-pointer as it initiated the stuffed animals being thrown onto the court.
“Dip drew up a play for us, and I had to execute it for the first shot,” said Cracknell. “That was exciting to see all the stuffed animals.”
Early in the half the teams exchanged the lead several times. The Jags jumped out a comfortable lead after Timmy Sellers grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up for a layup to go up 30-18 with eight minutes left. Sellers had six points off the bench for AU in the half.
“Timmy played great,” said Metress. “There has not been a game that we’ve put him in that he’s not played well.”
The Hurricanes cut the lead to single digits but a pair of back-to-back Cracknell mid range jumpers put AU up 42-31 with 36 seconds remaining. Adderton made two free throws before the half ended as the Jags were up 42-33.
In the second half Southwestern cut AU’s lead to 48-43 after a dunk by Kevin Kone with 15:39 remaining.
Despite tries by the Hurricanes, the Jaguars never wavered their lead as they continued to put the game away.
At the 10:57 mark, Troy Cracknell knocked down a mid range from behind the free throw line, a shot he consistently made all night.
“My job on the team is to shoot and score so many times when they come up top and trap the ball, the middle is wide open so many times I go to the middle and that’s an easy shot for me.”
Cracknell gave the Jags a 65-48 lead after making a layup with 6:36 left. Southwestern continued to fight and eventually had to send AU to the line late in the game to close out the game 77-65.
Augusta shot 54.4 percent from the field while holding Georgia Southwestern to 39.7 percent.
The Jags will head to St. Augustine, Fla., on Saturday, Jan. 22, to compete against Flager (6-1, 13-3). The Saints, who made it to the national championship game last season, currently sit in first place in the Peach Belt Conference standings. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
“Flagler is a good team,” said Metress. “They’ve got one of the best players in the league with (Jaizec) Lottie and they can really shoot it, but we’ll take our group down there and see what we can do.”
Contact Carlos Rodriguez at carrodriguez@augusta.edu.
Darren Lucas-White (11) shoots a jump short for the Jaguars in their win over Georgia Southwestern. At the top of the page, Tyshaun Crawford (0) makes a post move against the Hurricanes’ Kevin Kone (15). (photos by Carlos Rodriguez)
