By: Bailey Clark, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga.- Georgia College & State University Men's Basketball (4-8, 0-3 PBC) falls, 87-64 to the 2022 Division II national runner-up Augusta University (12-1, 3-0 PBC), Wednesday night. 

The Bobcats kicked off the game throwing the first punch on a dunk from Brendan Rigsbee (Suwanee) within the first two minutes of the contest. GCSU extended their early lead to five as Richard Crawford III (Evans) banks the first three point bucket of the game. The Jaguars came back with two back to back buckets to tie the game. Their offense continued to stay hot as they took the early lead and never gave it up as they entered the half with the 40-25 advantage. The second half kicked off a trend that would last the rest of the contest with the two squads trading buckets back and forth. AU ultimately took the 87-64 win. 

The Bobcat offense had a lone double-digit scorer with three adding nine points apiece. Rigsbee led the scoring with 12 points. He went 5-for-8 from field goal range including a dunk to kick start the Bobcat offense. Christian Koneman (Chatsworth), Chris Parks (Buford) and Crawford all added nine points to round out the leading scorers. Koneman came in off the bench going 4-for-7 from field goal range and added a free throw basket on an and one. Parks was also a reserve player in the contest as he scored three field goals including two three point buckets. With his nine points in the contest he tied his season high. Crawford was the final player to score nine points going an impressive 4-for-4 from the free throw line. 

Luke Chism (Dawsonville) led the rebounding effort for the Bobcats with seven. Chism eliminated several second chance points for the Jaguars by nabbing five defensive rebounds. He also added seven points to his boxscore. Koneman was the second leading rebounder for the Bobcats with six. He nabbed three from under each basket for his rebounding effort. 

The Bobcats will continue conference play Saturday, Jan. 7 in the Centennial Center as they take on Georgia Southwestern State University. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m. with live stats and broadcast links available at GCBobcats.com. 

As a proud recipient of the 2021 PBC Sportsmanship Institution of the Year, the Georgia College Department of Athletics sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. GC Athletics is now two-time winners of both the PBC Commissioner's Cup and the league's sportsmanship honor. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' continued appearances in postseason competition as well as high-level academic success and community-service involvement. Bobcat Athletics embodies the mantra of "Graduating Champions for Life." Sign up at @GCSUBobcats on all social media outlets for up-to-the-minute reports.