Auburn's Malik Dunbar headlines this update about former North Augusta players playing college basketball

The first two games on my soon to come post titled “12 must see matchups on this weekend’s high school schedule” will be played tonight, before a wave of Friday and Saturday games washes over us. North Augusta’s boys and girls will take on a pair of solid AC Flora teams in Columbia. While writing the previews for those games (again, soon to come) I stumbled upon a tweet (see below) that reminded me about a recent breakout performance of sorts by former North Augusta star Malik Dunbar, who recently excelled in his first start at Auburn.

But there are more Yellow Jacket college hoops success stories to share from the last week or so. Last week at North Augusta High School, head coach Tony Harrell and I tried to name all of the former Yellow Jackets currently playing college basketball. Neither he nor I got a 100% score on our pop quiz, as you can see, unless you give us credit for the names we initially forgot.

Here are updates on some of those former Jackets who have had strong showings of late:

👀h wow! 😱#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/1ndqffXzvV

— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) December 14, 2017

Malik Dunbar (‘15), who flew for the finish off the lob pass in the highlight above, scored 9 points in his first start Saturday as Auburn  (8-1) beat UAB 85-80. Next for the Tigers is Middle Tennessee Saturday at 6 (ET).  Middle Tennessee during the past two seasons has established itself as a division 1 power with NCAA tournament wins over Michigan State and Minnesota.

TJ Sheppard (‘13) scored 26 points and dished 9 assists in Limestone’s 94-90 win Saturday. Most recently Sheppard, who is scoring at a 14 ppg clip for the Saints (6-5, 2-1) scored 7 points Wednesday in a loss to Claflin at home. The Saints take on Mount Olive Saturday at 4:00.

Jaquez Smith ('16) scored 9 points Saturday when Francis Marion won at North Georgia to start 1-0 in Peach Belt Conference play. And he scored 8 last night in a 91-75 road win over Mount Olive that improved FM's record to 6-0 for the season. Next for Smith's team is a pair of PBC home games against Georgia Southwestern (Sunday at 4:00) and Columbus State (Tuuesday at 7:30).

Christian Davis (‘14) scored 10 points in Truett McConnell’s recent 75-73 win over Point. Davis is averaging 13 points and 3 steals per game for Truett (11-2, 5-2).