FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2-26-05

Men's College Basketball: AASU 79, Columbus State 70

Release Courtesy of Columbus State University Sports Information

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Columbus State watched a 15-point second-half lead vanish in less than six minutes here Saturday and went on to fall to Armstrong Atlantic State 79-70 in the Peach Belt Conference regular- season finale for both schools. CSU needed a win to secure the second seed from the PBC South Division and a first-round bye in the upcoming PBC Tournament, but failed and now must wait to see if they get help from GC & SU against Clayton State.

The Pirates (14-13, 6-10) out-scored CSU 14-5 in the game's first seven minutes but saw their lead disappear as the CSU shooters began to heat up. CSU trailed 16-8 with 11:53 left in the first half before awakening to go on a 17-3 run to take a 25-19 lead with 7:40 left. Yandel Brown hit a trio of three-pointers during the run and scored 12 of the 17 points. The run would become an overall 27-10 run to close the half as the Cougars took a 35-26 lead into the break. Brown tallied 23 points in the half to set new school and PBC records for points scored in a single season.

CSU (18-8, 11-5) allowed the Pirates to get to within four points on two occasions in the first three minutes of the second half, but then began to pull away. Kendrick Jones capped a 10-2 run with a triple and CSU held a 56-41 lead with 11:15 to play. That would be the last time CSU would score for for almost four minutes.

AASU, led by Bryan Taylor and Lorenzo Lawrence went on a 15-0 run to tie the game at 56 with 7:22 left. Lawrence capped the tying run with a trey. The Pirates took the lead on a Jamaal Galloway three-ball with 5:37 left and would keep it for almost three minutes, extending the margin to 65-60 with 3:59 left. CSU got a Jack Tinkler trey to re-take the lead with 2:23 left, but Lawrence answered with a triple of his own to give AASU the lead for good with 1:51 left.

The Pirates hit five of six free-throws and got a layup from Clennon Preyear in the final minute to seal the win. Meanwhile, CSU was held scoreless for 2:11, with thier final bucket coming on a Brown layup with just 12 seconds left.

Lawrence came off the bench to score a game-high 29 points on 8-20 shooting for the Pirates. He went 10-10 at the line and the team went 21-23 as a whole in taking the win. Alex Carter added 15 points, while Taylor tallied 14 to go with 10 rebounds. Galloway chipped in 10 points. AASU shot 50 percent in the second half and scored 53 points.

Brown was held to five points in the second half to finish with 28 in his final home game. He went 10-30 from the field and just 6-21 from three-point range. Despite the disappointment, Brown set a new school mark with 735 points scored in a season - also a PBC record. He broke his own record set last season of 712. As a team, CSU aired it out 47 times from beyond the arc, hitting just 14 of those (29 percent). Kendrick Jones added 21 points, while Quint Coger chipped in 10. Nathan Patterson led CSU on the boards with 12. CSU shot just 31 percent in the second half.

AASU will face Francis Marion at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2, in the first round of the 2005 PBC Championships in Augusta, Ga.

- Pirates -