Augusta overwhelmed Young Harris 88-72 Saturday in a key Peach Belt Conference matchup in front of 2,347 fans at Christenberry Fieldhouse. The No. 11 ranked Jaguars improved to 20-4 overall and 11-3 in conference play with four regular season games remaining. Augusta remains at the top of the conference standings alongside No. 24 North Georgia (18-4, 11-3).
The Jaguars were led by senior Tyshaun Crawford, the conference’s leading scorer (22.3 ppg), who scored 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. The 7’1” returning Peach Belt Conference Co-Player of the Year made 12 of 19 field goal attempts and made 7 of his 9 free throws. Saturday marked the second time in eight days that Crawford scored more than 30 points after last Saturday’s 35-point explosion in a home win over Georgia College.
MORE: Augusta falls at Lander and the PBC race tightens
Fellow senior Miguel Arnold contributed an efficient 23 points on 10-14 field goal shooting (3-6 from three) in 28 minutes. Arnold is the third leading scorer (17 ppg) in the conference, and he recently became the conference’s all time leader in made three pointers.
Freshman Chris Britt came off the bench to score a career high 13 points in only 16 minutes. Britt also dished 3 assists and snagged 2 steals in the best outing of his young career.
Augusta sprinted to a 24-7 lead and led by as many as 24 points during the first half before taking a 50-32 advantage into halftime. The Jaguars shot 65% from the field in the first half and 53% for the game. Crawford, Arnold and Britt scored 46 of Augusta’s 50 first half points.
Nineteen-year Head Coach Dip Metress expressed appreciation for the enthusiastic crowd and satisfaction with his team’s overall effort during the post game interview with Charles McNeil on the PBC Sports Network. Metress also said he believed his players had been placing “too much pressure” on themselves as the team has navigated a conference race that has featured five teams within two games of the top spot for the last three weeks.
“I told the team before the game… we’re in first place,” Metress explained. “There are thirty (Division II) conferences. We’re one of thirty teams that are in first place. We’re not Georgia football. We don’t win ‘em all. Lander handed it to us pretty good (Wednesday), but it was great beating a team that’s in second place (Young Harris) today.”
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Metress and the team changed things up for Thursday’s practice following Wednesday’s loss at Lander. Metress is doing his best to help his players enjoy their opportunity to compete for a conference championship, a rare opportunity for most college basketball players.
“It’s hard to win. They’re putting too much pressure on themselves sometimes,” Metress said. “So on Thursday we went outside to play at a park outside. Just to go hoop. Like this is what you love about basketball.”
Saturday’s win sets up a showdown at home Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against rival USC Aiken (17-7, 10-4). The Jaguars will try to exact revenge on the Pacers after USC Aiken defeated Augusta 81-76 three weeks ago in Aiken.
Follow Chad Cook’s coverage of local sports on Facebook and Instagram at @AugustaPressSports, and on Twitter at @AugPressSports.
