No. 9 Augusta (13-1, 4-0) will ride an eight-game winning streak into tonight’s home game against Peach Belt Conference foe Lander (11-3, 3-1) at 7:30 p.m. at Christenberry Fieldhouse. The game will immediately follow the women’s 5:30 p.m. matchup, and both Jaguar teams are coming off a pair of road wins last week over Georgia College and Young Harris. The Lady Jaguars (10-4, 3-1) stand one game behind conference leader Georgia Southwestern.
A Productive Road Trip
Augusta’s men spanked Georgia College 87-64 Wednesday and followed up with an 87-66 victory over No. 22 ranked and previously undefeated Young Harris Saturday. Those games saw a continuation of some of the positive trends Augusta has been riding ever since the current streak began on December 8 when the Jaguars rebounded from their only loss of the season six days earlier on the road against Virginia Union.
A Hot Shooting Hand
After last week’s wins, Augusta has now shot better than 50% from the field in six consecutive games after failing to meet that mark in the prior seven contests before the recent stretch. And the Jaguars have made more than 40% of their three point attempts in each of the last 5 games. Prior to that stretch the team hadn’t reached the 40% mark in any of the season’s first nine games.
Senior sharpshooter Miguel Arnold has had the hottest hand since the team returned from a seven-day Christmas break. Arnold has made 24 of 42 field goal attempts during the last three games, 11 of 25 (44%) from behind the three point line and 13 of 17 from two-point range. Arnold is third in the Peach Belt Conference in scoring (17 ppg), and during last Wednesday’s win over Georgia College he set the Peach Belt Conference record for career three pointers made. But at 5’10”, Arnold’s made two pointers might be the most exciting thing he’s showing us right now.
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Myers Sets Record for Assists
Arnold’s starting backcourt mate for four seasons, Tyree Myers, set a record of his own only one game later. After dishing 7 assists against Georgia College, Myers doled out 7 more against Young Harris and set the conference record for assists in a career. Myers was nicknamed “the closer” long ago by his teammates because of his willingness to score when the opponent is the strongest and the game most in doubt. Right on cue Saturday against then undefeated Young Harris, Myers closed the first half with 5 unanswered points in the final minute to give Augusta a 42-35 lead that ballooned to double digits soon after the second half began.
Arnold, Myers and fellow senior Darren Lucas-White, which comprise Augusta’s three-guard starting backcourt, have been closing games together since the three were freshmen during the 2018-19 season. Trio has compiled a win-loss record of 95-19, they’ve won two Peach Belt Conference championships, and they’ve won 7 of their 9 NCAA Tournament games during the stretch. The individual records Arnold and Myers set last week were nice adders to their resumes, but the win-loss record has always been the key performance indicator for this trio, and for this Jaguar team.
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