AUGUSTA, GA – An early first-half deficit proved to be costly as the Francis Marion University Patriot men's basketball team could not battle back and fell to the Augusta State University Jaguars 69-67, Saturday afternoon (Feb. 23) in Peach Belt Conference play.

Francis Marion (11-12, 6-10) will head back to Florence as the Patriots will host their final home games of the season next week, beginning with a makeup game against Armstrong Atlantic State University on Monday at 6:30 p.m. (PLEASE NOTE THE EARLIER START TIME).  The game was postponed back in January due to a leak in the Smith University Center roof.

Junior guard Evrik Gary led FMU in scoring with 15 points and moves into 13th place on Patriot career scoring list passing Lou Ziebell.  Gary had scored more than 30 points in each of the past two contests. Junior guard Chris Rhodes added 11 points, while senior Mi'kyel Nero and junior Robert Carpenter each scored 10 points.  Nero scored seven of his points in the final 25 seconds of the game as FMU mounted a furious comeback attempt.

Devonte Thomas led three Jaguars in double figures with 17 points as ASU improved to 13-11 and 8-9.

Francis Marion fell behind early and never led when Thomas made both of his free throws just 35 seconds into the game. The lead got to 9-0 before the Patriots could get their first basket on the board – a Nero layup with 12 minutes to go in the half. Going into halftime, the Jaguars held a 32-16 advantage as they shot 52 percent compared to FMU's 25 percent (5-of-20) from the floor.

Coming out of the locker room, the Pats struck early using an 11-7 run before the first media timeout to trim the lead to 12. After the timeout, Gary capped a 9-0 spurt with a four-point play that trimmed the lead to six, 39-33, with 11:53 left.

Twice Francis Marion would cut the deficit to four, at 40-36 and 49-45, but each time ASU extended the lead.  The margin was 11 points (65-54) with 1:11 remaining when the Patriots made one final push.

Thanks to a trio of three pointers – by Dustin Jones, Clayton Williams, and Nero – the Patriots cut the margin to 69-67 with three ticks on the clock.

Augusta State then missed two free throws with 2.3 seconds left and Nero grabbed the rebound, but the Patriots were unable to get off a potential game-tying or winning shot.

After the season-low 16 points in the opening 20 minutes, the Patriots outscored the Jaguars 51-37 in the second half thanks to 62 percent shooting.  For the game, FMU shot 45 percent from the floor total and converted 12 of their 27 three-pointers.