 |  |
Jaguars Claim PBC Tournament Title
AIKEN, S.C. -- Augusta State shot 50 percent in the second half Sunday evening and captured the 2011 Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship with a 76-59 victory over UNC Pembroke in the USCA Convocation Center.
With the victory, the Jaguars (28-3) earned the PBC's automatic bid to next week's NCAA Tournament. UNC Pembroke, which upset Georgia Southwestern 69-68 late Saturday night to advance to the tourney's title game, dropped to 18-11.
ASU, which captured the league's regular-season title and tournament championship for the second time in the last three seasons, reached the 28-win plateau for the third consecutive season. The victory was the Jags' 18th straight in the series with the Braves. The win gave the Jags their fourth tourney title overall (2001, 2002, 2009 and 2011).
ASU moved out to a 9-4 lead before a pair of free throws from Mike Robinson and Nate Priest and a layup from Shahmel Brackett gave UNCP its first lead of the game. The two teams traded the lead five more times over the next four minutes until the score was tied at 15-all with 9:40 to play.
The Jags then blitzed the Braves with an 18-0 run over the next seven minutes that included 10 points from senior forward Franck Ndongo and a 3-pointer from junior guard Tye Beal.
Trailing 32-15, UNCP countered with a 9-3 spurt on a Shahmel Brackett 3-pointer and a Robinson layup. ASU's O'Neal Armstrong answered with a pair of free throws that put the Jags up 37-24 at the half.
The Braves cut their deficit to 13 with 17:42 left, but that would be as close as they would get until the waning seconds. Ndongo got a steal and breakaway layup and ASU moved out to a 21-point lead -- its largest of the game --- with 7:22 to play on Beal's fourth trey of the game.
The Jaguars did that largely at the free throw line, setting season-highs in both free throws made and attempted. ASU took 21 free throws in each half and hit 18 of them (86 percent). UNCP hit 20-of-25 from the line as a team but struggled from long distance, hitting only 1-of-9 3-pointers in the second half. The 34 total free throws made by ASU set a PBC Tournament record.
Beal paced ASU with 17 points, canning four 3-pointers and hitting 10-of-11 free throws. George Johnson scored 16 and was named the tournament Most Valuable Player. Ndongo finished with 15 and Armstrong finished with 14 points, four assists and three steals.
Brackett tallied a game-high 24 for UNCP, connecting on 8-of-14 from the floor and all six of his free throws. No other Brave reached double figures as Nate Priest finished with eight while George Blakeney led all players with seven rebounds.
ASU is favored to host its fifth straight NCAA Southeast Regional championship. If the Jags are awarded the regional on Sunday night, they will host the event March 12-15 at ASU's Christenberry Fieldhouse.
2011 Peach Belt Conference All-Tournament Team
GEORGE JOHNSON, AUGUSTA STATE
O'NEAL ARMSTRONG, AUGUSTA STATE
Trayce Macon, Georgia Southwestern
Antoine Davis, Montevallo
George Blakeney, UNC Pembroke
Shahmel Brackett, UNC Pembroke
Tournament MVP – GEORGE JOHNSON, AUGUSTA STATE
NOTES … ASU extended its winning streak to seven games … The Jags improved to 10-5 in the PBC Tournament under head coach Dip Metress and to 23-9 in the postseason under Metress … The Jags improved to 3-1 vs. UNC Pembroke in the PBC Tournament … ASU improved to 14-0 under Metress against the Braves … ASU improved to 24-9 in the month of March under Metress … ASU improved to 138-26 under Metress since the beginning of the 2006-07 season … ASU improved to 114-19 under Metress since the beginning of the 2007-08 season … ASU improved to 5-6 all-time in the USCA Convocation Center … The Jags improved to 4-2 all-time in PBC Tournament championship games.
Augusta State head coach Dip Metress
"Not many people thought on October 15 that we'd be here in this situation, so I am very proud of our team to win this. I talked to them about winning the conference championship. We had a five-minute stretch where we were dynamite defensively and taking care of the ball. It is a great win -- a great win! You don't get many championships, and to get the regular season title and the tournament title - that's a great pair. You don't get too many opportunities for something like this. We had to mentally ready to play, and this is a great feeling."
"Beal did a great job defending Brackett, and he made some tough shots. We're not complicated offensively, we are not searching for our own shot, and for the most part, playing unselfish. They spaced him, and he shot them in the offense. Early in the season, he had a stretch where he didn't make too many shots, and I called him out on it a couple of times in practice."
"It's a culmination of the season - a body of work. After we lost to Georgia College, we met that night and I told them we would have to go on the road for the Regional. And wow! How things turned around."
"Every team we play is different offensively, and we have adjusted well defensively to that."
Junior guard O'Neal Armstrong
"We had to keep applying the pressure and not be stagnant. We had to keep moving the ball and take good shots, and it worked."
Senior guard George Johnson
"I'm just part of a great program, from the head coach to the assistant coaches down to the trainers. They know how to win, and I just came here to try to keep the tradition alive."
"When they are knocking down shots, it opens up our offense and it opens me up. Now that Ty is taking shots, we will be tough to beat."
UNC Pembroke head coach Ben Miller
"Congratulations to Augusta State. They have a great basketball team, and we have a good team as well. We didn't play our best, but you have to give them credit. They make things tough. But I am real proud of our guys. Not many people expected us to be playing on the last day. Everybody did a great job getting us to this point. We are just disappointed in the outcome."
"We have a chance to continue playing, and that's we are hoping for. But if this is it, I am very proud of these players and what they have done. We have made a lot of growth as a program."
