Victory at Georgia College Pushes Win Streak to Five

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The GRU Augusta men’s basketball team used an early run to push their win streak to five with a 64-50 Peach Belt Conference victory over the Georgia College Bobcats Wednesday night in the Centennial Center.

The Jaguars (17-5, 9-4 PBC) improved to 13-6 against Georgia College (9-13, 3-10 PBC) with Head Coach Dip Metress at the helm. Keith Crump led the Jaguars with 14 points for the game, adding a game-high six assists. D’Angelo Boyce added 11 and Keshun Sherrill 10. It was the first time Crump has paced the Jags in scoring all season.

GRU got beat on the glass, being outrebounded 37-28, but the Jags owned the perimter – hitting seven three pointers to GC’s two on 16 attempts. Each team shot 75 percent at the free-throw line, but the 41.2 percent from beyond the arc to the Bobcats’ 12.5 was the difference maker.

Scoring started at the free-throw line from the Bobcats, but Vlad Cobzaru hit a layup to take the lead that GRU would never relinquish. Crump and Devonte Thomas hit back-to-back three pointers as the Jags sparked a 12-2 run to open the game. At the 11:48 mark, GRU reached their largest advantage of the game at that point after D’Angelo Boyce completed an and-1 play for a 15-7 lead.

GC cut it to a six-point game halfway through the first half, but another Crump three ball kept the Jags ahead safely at 20-11. GRU led by as much as 11 in the first half and took the break on top 31-23, paced by Crumps eight points.

GRU had eight players record points in the opening half and the offense continued with Cobzaru pushing the lead to 10 on a spin-around layup to start the second half. Devonte Thomas’ three-pointer got the Jags back to an 11-point lead and two Thomas free throws kept them up 40-27.

Terrell Harris broke up the scoring drought for the Bobcats with a corner three, but the Jags continued to keep a safe double-digit lead for the majority of the second half. With just under 11 minutes to go, some sloppy ball movement from the Jags allowed GC within eight.

The Bobcat defense inserted the full-court press in the final 10 minutes of the game to cause the Jaguars slight trouble – letting GC climb back into a 54-46 game. GRU secured a safe lead again and Keshun Sherrill’s three-pointer put things out of the reach with 3:03 to go as the Jags went on to take a 64-50 victory.

GC senior Larrentis Thomas posted his 10th double-double of the season with 19 points and a career-best 16 rebounds. Thomas was 8-for-11 from the floor. Junior Terrell Harris added 17 points and five boards, including a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. The rest of the team struggled for offense, totaling 14 points, including just a pair from the Bobcat bench.

The Jags play another Peach Belt Conference road contest at Armstrong on Saturday, Feb. 7 for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

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