Both of North Augusta’s basketball teams rolled to easy wins over Region 4-AAAA foe Aiken on Friday, Jan. 31.
The girls started off the night with a 54-32 victory, improving to 10-0 in region play and 20-1 overall.
They got things going fast as they have all year, starting the game on an 8-0 run through the first four minutes of gametime.
Aiken’s girls finally settled in and kept themselves in the game only trailing 25-16 at the break.
The second half proved to be all Yellow Jackets as they started to do what they do to every team, which is take their will to win away in the third quarter with suffocating defense.
They used their defense to force turnovers which is what made this one get out of hand fast, it felt like there was a pass or shot that didn’t have a North Augusta defender being pesky and getting their hands on it.
The fourth quarter was more of the same as NA coasted to the win over the Aiken squad.

The Yellow Jackets hold a team that averages 45 points a contest to only 32 points is obviously impressive, but a jarring stat is that the first time they squared off, North Augusta held them to even less at 26 points.
So, in two combined games Aiken has only mustered 58 points against this Yellow Jacket defense.
“I can tell you one thing, that we always stress defense,” said Head Coach Al Young. “We feel like if we can play well defensively, that we’re always gonna have a chance to win the game.”
On the offensive side of things, Celena Grant and Ashley Walker can score from anywhere on the floor and make their living on fastbreak points.
There is no better team in the state at making winning plays and they prove that night in and night out, it’s no wonder why they’ve won five out of the last eight State Championships from 2017-2020 and 2023.
The Lady Yellow Jackets will be back in action Feb. 4 for a battle at South Aiken at 6:00 p.m.
In he second game of the night, the boys, who own an identical record to the girls with their only loss coming at their most recent road contest at Gray Collegiate, 55-51, beat Aiken 68-45.
The last time these two teams, North Augusta and Aiken squared off it was only a 10-point deficit, the tightest win the Yellow Jackets have had in region play.
On Friday, it was a different story as they used their size to their advantage and gave Aiken nightmares in the paint all evening.
The first quarter was a tight one as the two teams both struggled to score, and it was only an 11-9 game.
The next period wasn’t much better as far as scoring goes because it felt like neither team could make a shot unless it was on a fastbreak opportunity and the score at half was North Augusta with a 24-14 lead.
A lot like the girls, it was the third quarter that separated them from Aiken and led to the blowout win.
The Yellow Jackets outscored their opponent 31-14 in the third frame and most of that from their inside presence, Da’ron Dunbar.
The Augusta University commit, Dunbar, finished the game with 15 points, 10 of those coming in the second half.
“He’s been a really good player for four years,” said Head Coach Tony Harrell. “He just knows how to play basketball, he’s very skilled offensively, he gets to his spots and gets points.”
North Augusta was able to cruise in the fourth and allow some of their young guys to get some valuable minutes that will help in the future.
The second half avalanche could be attributed to a lot of things, but coach Harrell had a few things he thought made a difference.
“I think we had a couple of different lineups that we used tonight. The offense wasn’t flowing early, but what I was really proud of was our guys defensively…at halftime I told our guys we are going in the paint, and we dominated down there in the third quarter.”
They will also be in action on Tuesday at South Aiken following the girls’ game. The last time these two played, the Yellow Jackets were victorious 62-21.