Tyler Johnson buried a three pointer with 51 seconds remaining to halt a run by Augusta and give USC Aiken a five-point lead on the way to an 81-76 victory at the USC Aiken Convocation Center Wednesday. The win was the third straight and the second in a row against a nationally ranked opponent for USC Aiken, who improved to 14-5 overall and 7-2 in Peach Belt Conference action.
Augusta, who entered the game ranked No. 9 in the nation, dropped its second straight game and fell to 16-3 overall and 7-2 in the conference. At the halfway point of the eighteen-game Peach Belt schedule the Jaguars, the Pacers and Lander (15-4, 7-2) are locked in a three way tie for second place in the standings, one game behind North Georgia (14-2, 7-1).
Tehree Horn led USC Aiken with 16 points, Jameel Rideout added 13 and Demitrios Dixon chipped in 11 as ten different Pacers scored during the game. Augusta was led by Tyshaun Crawford (22 points), Miguel Arnold (21) and Darren Lucas-White (11).
USC Aiken shot 57% from the field and 53% from the three point line. Augusta nearly kept pace at 56% and 46% to make for a thrilling game for the nearly capacity crowd.
Eight year head coach Mark Vanderslice spoke highly of his adversary in a post game interview moments after the team, the coaching staff, and the students who cheered the Pacers to victory gathered at half court to celebrate the emotional victory together.
“It goes without saying that, playing Augusta, not only is it a rivalry, there’s just a lot of respect for the coaching staff, for the program, for the team,” Vanderslice said. “I mean they have history behind them for a reason, because they do things the right way, and they do it all the time.”
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Vanderslice praised his players for staying composed, “not too high, not too low.” And after it was pointed out that ten of his players scored in the game, he described his staff’s strategy in making sure 11 players all played at least nine minutes in the game.
“I could be wrong, but I’m not sure Crawford or Arnold even came out of the game,” Vanderslice started. “Our bench came through. I noticed in the first half that we had four or five guys play about 14 or 15 minutes or more. And that was kind of matching their fatigue. And we didn’t want to match their fatigue. So in the second half, a little bit of our adjustment was to make sure that we evened out the minutes and distributed them evenly amongst the guys because we knew that in the last six, seven minutes fatigue was really going to play a part.”
Crawford played all 40 minutes, Arnold played 39 and Lucas-White 36 for Augusta. Tyree Myers was dogged by foul trouble and only saw 22 minutes of action. And Ja’Queze Kirby, also a starter, could only manage 18 minutes of court time as the sophomore spent much of the rest of the time going back and forth to the trash can in the bathroom because of sickness.
Nineteen year head coach Dip Metress was pleased with Augusta’s effort, unlike after Saturday’s loss at home against Flagler.
“Our effort was fine,” Metress said. “Credit to them. They played really well. If we play with this effort we’ll be fine.
“We don’t want to make excuses. They beat us. Our goal is to win the regular season Peach Belt championship. We have to get back and win these other games.”
Augusta battled back from double digit deficits in both halves before falling short. USC Aiken took a 24-13 lead with 10:58 remaining in the first half after a three pointer by Dixon. But Augusta outscored the Pacers 25-13 the rest of the first half. A deep three pointer by Arnold right before the buzzer gave the Jaguars a 38-37 halftime lead.
Rideout opened the second half with a three pointer to give USC Aiken a lead that it never relinquished. The advantage eventually grew to 13 when Horn scored in transition to give USC Aiken a 68-55 lead with 7:27 remaining.
Again Augusta battled back. After sitting for much of the second half with 4 fouls, Myers returned and made a three pointer with 3:17 remaining to cut the deficit to 73-66. And with 1:09 left Myers made another three, was fouled in the process and converted the four-point play to make it 75-73.
But 18 seconds later Johnson provided the final blow with his dagger three that sent Pacer fans home happy.
Augusta will travel to Clayton State (0-8) Saturday, and USC Aiken will make the trip to No. 18 North Georgia to try to defeat their third consecutive nationally ranked opponent.
Follow Chad Cook’s coverage of local sports on Facebook and Instagram at @AugustaPressSports, and on Twitter at @AugPressSports.
