A review of Augusta's 86-73 win over Barton and a preview of Thursday's 11:00 A.M. "Education Day" matchup against Emmanuel

Augusta 86, Barton 73 - Final

PBC Player of the Week Darren Lucas-White

Leading scorers

Rafael Monteiro - 22
Darren Lucas-White - 18
Troy Cracknell - 14

The Jaguars improved to 4-2.

Watch the replay here:



Thursday at 11:00 A.M. Augusta will face Emmanuel, which, like Augusta, won its conference and advanced to the NCAA tournament last season. The “Education Day” game will be attended by thousands of elementary school students. If you can't attend but want to watch, you can do so at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN1vJGQK7Tk

Augusta vs Barton - Breakdown

Augusta head coach Dip Metress had to be pleased that during Saturday's 86-73 win over Barton, his team delivered nicely on all three of his "keys to the game." A breakdown of that performance follows:

1) Improve defensively after giving up 85 points against Barton on November 9. (Augusta prevailed by 3 points on the road in the season's second game)

As hoped for, the Jaguars held Barton to 39% shooting in Saturday's win at home, whereas three weeks earlier Barton had converted 53% of its field goals against Augusta. Augusta also out-rebounded its opponent 40-32. Metress spread the minutes among more players in Saturday's meeting than he had in the first meeting between the two teams, which allowed more intensity and activity from the players on the court at any given time. Eight players played more than 14 minutes, and nobody played more than 26 minutes in Saturday's game.

Two players who made the most of those minutes and made a notable impact on the defensive end of the floor were sophomores Darren Lucas-White and Tyshaun Crawford. Lucas-White played well enough to earn Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week honors as he tallied 18 points (5-7 field goals, 8-9 free throws), 6 steals and 4 assists in 22 minutes. Coach Metress singled him out in our post game interview:

Metress also praised Crawford, a 7-0 center in his first season with the Jaguars after transferring from Georgia Southern, for blocking 6 shots in 24 minutes of action:

All Peach Belt Conference performer Rafael Monteiro, Augusta's leading scorer (19 ppg), led the way in fulfilling Metress's second objective for Saturday's game, the first of 4 home games in December:

2) Establish the inside game.

Monteiro continued his torrid shooting pace in the win by making 11 of his 16 field goal attempts. He also grabbed 9 rebounds in the contest. The senior has made 59% of his attempts through 6 games.



With one more game before the beginning of conference play, Metress is homing in on his rotation, which brings us to his third key for Saturday's game against Barton:

3) Build depth

Nine players scored for Augusta Saturday. And in addition to the standout performances by Lucas-White, Monteiro and Crawford, the Jaguars got key contributions from Troy Cracknell (14 points and 7 rebounds), Tyree Myers (9 points and 5 assists) and Shawn Moss, who made a pair of key buckets in the second half.

It's not often that a team executes on all of the points its coach outlines before a game. But Saturday's win, Augusta's second straight, was one such case. When Emmanuel, the defending Conference Carolinas champion, visits Thursday morning, similar execution might be needed for Augusta to extend its winning streak to three games.