Offensive highlights filled Augusta State's Southeast Regional Championship victory Tuesday night over Montevallo. But it was a few defensive moves behind the scenes that played a key role in the title game.
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Augusta State coach Dip Metress took a calculated risk defensively when handing out the defensive matchups before the game. He pulled point guard Daniel Dixon off Montevallo point guard Mark Plaza and onto leading scorer Freddy Little. The job of guarding Montevallo's point guard fell to forward Fred Brathwaite, a matchup that gave Augusta State a decided size advantage but left Dixon with a difficult task.
"Plaza is very, very tough to guard. He drives it, drives it, drives it," Metress said. "We decided to put a bigger guy on him just to cut his vision down. He didn't get much until late."
Brathwaite held Plaza to three points in the first half and backed off from guarding him on the perimeter in favor of assisting defensively in the paint, where he grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. With a lightened work load on defense, Brathwaite was able to put up 25 points, his most since a career-high 32 in November, on 11 of 13 shooting.
"At first I felt like I was preserving energy (on defense)," Brathwaite said. "But he caught me off guard a couple of times. ... There was still a sense of urgency there."
Plaza, who committed a game-high four turnovers, started hitting in the second half when Augusta State went to a zone defense.
Dixon, guarding Little, gave a similar effort defensively. He held the Falcons' top scorer to just five shot attempts in the first half, but a late surge from Montevallo included a hot streak from Little, who finished with 23 points.
Dixon found redemption late on the offensive side of the ball. His turnover led to a quick Montevallo bucket with under five minutes to play to make it a two-point game, but he followed that up with his first basket of the night, a 3-pointer from the left corner.
The senior hit another key 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down with 1:14 to play.
"Offensively, it doesn't matter to me. Defense is my biggest concern," Dixon said. "And I think that's our biggest concern on the team."
Augusta State held Montevallo to 50 percent from the floor, a drop from 55 percent in the Falcons' semifinals victory over USC Aiken on Sunday night. Montevallo also committed 13 turnovers, which led directly to 23 Augusta State points.
Metress said the defensive efforts from both Dixon and Brathwaite, considering the adjustments made in the matchups, was key to the Jaguars' success.
"It was a credit to these guys to stick with the game plan," Metress said. "(Plaza) got us a little bit, but it's just a kind of adjustment we had to make."
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