AU women hoops team has historic season
By Anna Biondolillo | Sports writer
The Augusta University women’s basketball team has just finished a season for the books.
For the first time in 33 years, the Jaguars won the Peach Belt Conference Championship. By winning the PBC Tournament, which included an upset of highly ranked Columbus State, the Jaguars earned a bid into the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional tournament. After being with the team for seven years now and officially being the head coach for three seasons, coach Celeste Stewart was able to mold this team into a conference champion.
“It was definitely surreal,” Stewart said in an interview. “You see these teams play in March Madness around this time of year, and we watch that and also got experience it in our own way as tournament champions.”
Aside from becoming PBC champions, the team posted a 21-10 record and earned the opportunity to play in the Southeast Regional. The Jaguars lost to Lenoir-Rhyne University in the quarterfinals 83-74 in Tennessee. The Bears would make it to the regional final, where they lost to Carson-Newman 72-53. AU had lost to L-R two years ago in the regional by a 61-55 score.
Even with regional loss on March 13, this AU team was very excited about the opportunity to play in the national tournament and is looking to use that as momentum to make further steps in seasons to come.
To get to the point of being conference champions took a lot of hard work and perseverance for this team. Senior Amari Jackson, second on the team in scoring at nearly 13 points per game, was asked how the training went and progressed as the season went on.
“We practiced every day, which was followed by weights two to three times a week,” Jackson said. “As the season went on, practices got lighter, but not too light.”
Stewart made a point to emphasize the team's hard work in practice, in the preseason and at the beginning of the season, with a lot of cardio and ball-handling work. The team used this as their foundation for the season to put in the hard work physically and then train mentally by watching film and working on game scenarios and more technique work when games were in full swing.
“We talk a lot about mentality, and this has been our focus through the course of the season,” Stewart said.
At AU, athletes hear a lot about doing their best and to represent our school with pride and honor, and it is easy to see these values in our women’s basketball team. Stewart recalled a highlight moment for freshman Chloe Ross in a match-up against North Georgia.
“You kind of saw that fire in her to where she wanted to make something happen,” Stewart said.
That mentality was seen all throughout the season with many of the team's players. This was the attitude and mentality that brought them to the PBC championship.
As the season came to a close, the team only had feelings of pride and anticipation for the seasons yet to come. Leading scorer and all-PBC first-team performer Quinasia Abercrombie said she hopes to build on this season’s success.
“We want to continue to grind and run it back to go even further next season,” said Abercrombie, a sophomore who was also named second team all-conference with her 17.2 points per game. She has been PBC freshman of the year in 2024-25.
The addition of alumna Mone Florence to serve as the teams’s graduate assistant coach also paid dividends. Jaguar fans saw her play an outstanding senior season in 2024-25 before she became the grad assistant. Stewart expressed nothing but gratitude for Florence’s dedication to the team and excitement that she got to experience being a conference champion in a new way.
“She didn't get a chance to experience the championship as a student, and so for her to experience that as a coach now, I think that hit her a little bit differently because it was a lot of hard work that went into it from a perspective of a coach,” Stewart said.
No matter who you are, anyone would feel the pride for AU’s women’s basketball team to make it that far. Even with the tournament now past, the team still feels the excitement of the moment; it’s something that will stay with you.
“Remember what it felt like to be able to experience that moment, because no one can ever take that away from you,” Stewart said. “It’s the ones before you that paved the way to be here.”
And Stewart knows about the lean times. When Stewart arrived in 2018, the Jags had just come off a 7-21 season under Millette Green. However, Green and Stewart slowly built the program to respectability. When Green left to be an assistant at Wake Forest in 2022, Stewart was hired as interim coach, and her first team went 17-12. Now she has seen her Jaguars have three straight 20-win seasons.
“You know, there’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of, um, challenges in my seven years here, so I've seen our program go from, you know, not being as good and then continue to just build over time and, um, and finally being able to see the the fruits of our labor come to life.”
With Abercrombie and guard Elyse Autrey coming back for 2026-27, Stewart plans to build on the success of the last three seasons—with two visits to the regional in three years.
“So it's like, OK now guys, we are getting there now, butwe need to continue,” Stewart said. “Like your foot is in the door. Yeah, like we know what it feels like to be there in that moment. Now, what does that look like advancing in the NCAA tournament. Not just getting there, not being satisfied with just getting there, but really pushing forward to overcome even more goals going into next season.”
Note: At the top of page, AU’s Amari Jackson (12) drives to the hoop in the Peach Belt Tournament. Jackson averaged 12.8 points per game for the Jaguars. (photo by Lydia Williams/the Bell Ringer)
Contact Anna Biondolillo at ABIONDOLILLO@augusta.edu.
AU coach Celeste Stewart draws up a play during the Peach Belt Conference quarterfinals. Stewart led AU to its third straight 20-win season. (photo by Lydia Williams/the Bell Ringer)
Quinasia Abercrombie (24) led AU to an NCAA Division II Southeast Regional appearance and the Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship. She was all-PBC first team. (photo by Lydia Williams/the Bell Ringer)
