AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Four players scored in double figures to lead Augusta State to a season-opening 77-62 victory over Paine College Wednesday night in Christenberry Fieldhouse.
Former Augusta prep standout Harold Doby made his first appearance as a Jaguar a memorable one. He recorded game highs in points (17), rebounds (7) and assists (5 and connected on 7-of-14 field goal attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers.
"Harold played extremely well," Jaguar head coach Dip Metress said. "We kept telling him to shoot the ball in practice, because he often plays unselfishly and passes the ball to his teammates."
Senior point guard O'Neal Armstrong notched 16 points, going 9-of-13 from the foul line while consistently attacking the rim. Travis Keels booked two blocks along with 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and Tye Beal canned 12 points, all on 3-balls.
Darius Smith and James Devlin each had 16 for the Lions.
ASU drained its first eight field-goal attempts of the game and moved out to a 12-point advantage on Doby's second long-range missile before Paine's Devlin cut it back to six with a layup in traffic before the half. The teams both shot over 47 percent for the period.
The Jags started out hot once again in the second half, building the lead to a comfortable 10-point margin on Doby's free throw with 17:20 left in the game. They used strong offensive rebounding and good perimeter defense to balloon the lead to 20, holding Paine scoreless from behind the arc while knocking down 4-of-6 3-pointers.
ASU shot 50.9 percent overall in the game, and 56.3 percent on 9-of-16 shooting on 3s. Paine shot 45.7 percent from the floor, and 23.5 percent from deep.
The Jags extended their regular-season, home winning streak to 39 with the victory and posted their eighth straight victory in the series with the Lions. ASU travels to Columbia, S.C., on Monday to take on 13th-ranked Benedict at 7:30 pm.
"We need to focus on defense against Benedict," Metress said. "We gambled too much tonight, though it was a very good win that I'm happy to have."
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