By Leeroy Francis |Staff writer
The Augusta University men’s basketball team continued its strong play and stretched its winning streak to four with a victory over Flagler University 77-72 on Wednesday, Jan. 31.Earlier, the AU women’s team fell to Flagler by a 74-61 score.In the men’s contest, the opening half at Christenberry Fieldhouse was a good one for the Jags. The back-and-forth opening half started with lights-out three-point shooting from Flagler, which started the contest with their first 21 points coming from behind the three-point arc. That gave the Saints an early 21-10 lead midway through the first half.The Jaguars fought back and when on a 19-2 run spanning 4:40 in the first half and in total shot 16 for 33 (48.5 percent) in the first half. In the opening 20 minutes, the leading scorer for Augusta was Tamyrik Fields, who had 18 points, going nine of 12 from the field, and adding two rebounds and two assists. Fields, the senior from Augusta, had the hot hand early on as the home crowd and his teammates leaned on him for some great shooting to bring the Jags back in the game. Eventually, he helped give the Jags a 39-36 lead at halftime.The Jags continued their accurate shooting in the second half to increase their lead to 10 with a 7-0 run to start the second half. However, Flagler was not backing down and used a half-court press defensive scheme in the second half to try and slow down the Jaguars’ offense.The visiting Saints, led by junior Vaughn McCall and senior Austin Howard, fought back in the second half to tie the game at 58 with 8:05 left in the game. As the Jags seemed to be pulling away from the Saints late in the game, Flagler senior forward Chris Williams brought them back one more time by scoring six straight points. That cut the Jags’ lead to only two with 1:13 left in the game.With only 44 seconds left, Fields made arguably the most important shot for the Jags with an 18-foot jumper from just beyond the left elbow to stretch the lead to four. After a quick Flagler layup with 31 seconds remaining, clutch free-throw shooting from Augusta’s Deane Williams and Fields, going three of four from the line, put the game out of reach for Flagler.Since scoring 33 points in the Jan. 17 game against Francis Marion, Fields has played amazing basketball. Against Flagler, the senior from Aquinas High School, had another 33 points on 15-of-20 shooting from the field, adding five rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes of action.Asked after the game about how he plays the game mentally, Fields was concise with his answer.“Just play and let the game come to me,” said Fields, who is averaging 26.7 points his last six games.And why are he and the team playing so well in the last half dozen games?“It’s mainly defense,” he said. “We have been just trying to lock down defenders because we know we can score—like anybody can go into double digits any night, so we just try to focus on our defense and let our offense flow.”The Jags seem like they have found their chemistry and rhythm at the end of January. In this win, as in the others in the streak, they shot well, this time at 51 percent from the field. They also shot well from the line, making 16 of 20. The hosts added 18 assists, compared to eight for the Saints.In addition to fields, AU Coach Dip Metress got good play from sophomore guard Mikkel Kolstad, who ran the point and kept the Jaguars firing on all cylinders offensively throughout the night. Junior Tyvez Monroe also had an outstanding effort with 16 points, seven rebounds, and two assists. Forward Deane Williams had nine points, eight rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. The Bristol, England, junior also spearheaded the defensive play. Flagler shot 46 percent for the game.Before the game, Fields was honored for breaking the 1,000-point barrier for his career in the win at USC-Aiken last week. He became the 29th AU men’s player to do that.
The Jaguars’ next game is against Columbus State University on Saturday, Feb 3 at 3:30 p.m. in Columbus. With their fourth straight win on Wednesday, the Jags now sit 9-5 in the Peach Belt Conference, good for third place, and 12-8 overall. The Jaguars will look to continue the hot play against a Cougars team that lost on Wednesday against North Georgia. With the loss, Flagler is now 4-10 in the conference and 7-11 overall this season.In the women’s game, the Jaguars and the Saints went back and forth as well trading fast-break buckets early in the game. The Jags built a 17-14 lead late in the first, but the Saints continued to rally and never gave the lead back after halftime.AU junior Brianna Middleton led the way with 13 points and added 12 rebounds for a double-double in the contest. Junior Moneisha Goldsborough had 10 points, four rebounds, and an assist, while Jahmia Bradley scored 11 points and added an assist for the Jaguars.The Jag women’s next game also is at Columbus State on Feb. 3. The AU women are now 3-15 overall and 1-13 in the conference. Contact Leeroy Francis at lfrancis@augusta.edu