Justin Gray | Sports editor 

The Augusta women’s basketball team traveled up to Fayetteville State and beat the No. 10 team in Division II, 56-52. 

Fayetteville State only lost three games last year and it went undefeated at home, so for the Jaguars there was nothing working in their favor and they found a way to pull it out. 

Augusta has played team basketball and that’s a big reason they are off to a 4-0 start, and there were no real outlier performances until senior Mone Florence stepped up big and dropped 21 points in the win. 

She knocked down four three-pointers and had four combined blocks and steals, but for Coach Celeste Stewart that’s not what changed the game. 

“Late in the game, Mone took a charging foul and that was a momentum shifter, then came down and hit a three.”

The Jaguars led the game by as many as 12 points after the end of the first quarter, but as good teams do, FSU fought back and made it a four-point game at the break. 

The third quarter was a wash as both teams scored 11, but when the fourth quarter came around, it looked like AU might run away with it, extending their lead to 10 at the 5:08 mark, but the Broncos wouldn’t go down without a fight as they went on an 8-0 run, cutting the lead to just two. 

Then, the aforementioned Florence scored the final five points for the Jags leading them to the victory.

Coach Stewart’s squad is showing early that they are made of the right stuff, the AU women only trailed for 21 seconds in this one, and though FSU made their run, they bent, but didn’t break. 

This kind of mentality is what Stewart has instilled in these ladies in her first two years of her Augusta tenure as head coach. 

“I think for us this just shows what we’re capable of, we’re still developing our chemistry, figuring out what that dynamic is going to look like for our team going forward, but even through that we’ve been able to pull out wins, which is great.”

For a team that averaged 68 points per game a season ago, you’d expect them to be pretty offensive oriented, but this team is going to break you down defensively and make you make the mistake that leads to a basket. 

“We’re clicking on the defensive end, rebounding the ball really well and a lot of effort plays are winning us games right now,” said Stewart. 

Last season, the Jaguars began the season 4-0, but then dropped four straight, they are hoping to avoid that and keep the winning streak alive. 

It won’t be easy as they go to a tough Francis Marion on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 5:30 p.m. FMU has already defeated Georgia Southwestern, who won the Peach Belt Conference last year and made it to the Elite Eight. 

They return home on Saturday, Nov. 23 for their “Women in Sports Day” against Belmont Abbey College at 1:30 p.m. 

Contact Justin Gray at jusgray@augusta.edu

Top photo: Mone Florence shoots a floated over Newberry defenders in Jaguars’ most recent home contest. (Photo by Paula Toole)

This story appears in this semester’s print edition of The Bell Ringer.