AUGUSTA, Ga.  – Jaguar-senior forward Devon Wright-Nelson surpassed 1,000 career points on Wednesday night, Dec. 3 with a three-pointer from the right side that put the Jaguars up 21-10 at that point against Paine College and helped seal an 87-78 victory in The Heal Complex.

With the win, the Jaguars move to 10-1 against Paine with Dip Metress at the Helm since the 2004-05 season and to 6-1 on the 2014-15 season. GRU posted a 53.1 field-goal percentage and held the Lions to 40.3 percent for the game.

Vlad Cobzaru won another opening tipoff and found Devonte Thomas in transition for a layup and the first lead of the game to start the night. The Lions evened it at 4-4 on two free throws, but GRU sophomore Keith Crump had a quick six points with a finger-roll layup and two jumpers to keep the Jags up by two with 15:51 in the first half.

Crump ended the half with 12 points to pace the Jags and posted his season-high 19 points in the game. Keshun Sherrill led all scorers with 25 points. Thomas had 14 points and Wright-Nelson 13 with six rebounds. Wright-Nelson now has 1,009 points for his four-year career as a Jaguar.

Thomas put the Jags up 16-8 with a contested layup after four minutes into the game, but the Lions completed two three-point plays to cut to the game to 23-17. Denzel Dillingham hit a trey for PC that brought them within three of the Jags. An extremely close affair, the first half saw Paine make it a one-basket game several times, but the Jags had an answer every time to keep a slight lead of 37-32 heading into the break.

GRU forced a PC turnover on their first possession of the second half and for the second time of the game, Cobzaru found Thomas out of the whistle which resulted in a made three pointer. The Jags made six of 12 three pointers in the contest (50.0 percent), while Paine made five of 18 (27.8 percent.

PC had it back to a five-point game, but Roman Hill came off in the bench and grabbed two offensive rebounds to keep control for GRU. Four possessions later, Hill snagged another loose-ball board to keep the double-digit lead intact.

The Lions made a seven-point game – finding Markees Walker on the perimeter and Patrick Petty in the paint. Wright-Nelson kept his team calm with another made three-pointer and after Paine thought they had a wide-open dunk, Wright-Nelson sprinted the floor and blocked the shot to keep GRU on top 76-68 with 4:51 to go.

Paine stayed persistent and chipped away the GRU lead – making it a four-point game after they stole the ball in their own court to set up another dunk. Sherrill drove the lane for the Jags and made a windmill layup to lead GRU 78-72. PC was forced to foul and the Jags won an 87-78 non-conference game on the free-throw line.

The Jaguars play at Bowie State this Saturday, Dec. 6 at 2:00 p.m. in Bowie, Md.

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