After all, Paine College had lost leading scorer Maurice Wright and forward Dreyveel Cunningham from the 1998 team that advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament. However, Jamerson and Scott began launching 3-pointers and have become the Lions' leading scorers.
Augusta State will get a first-hand look at this tag-team bomb squad tonight in the City Classic when the Jaguars (3-6) play host to Paine (2-5) at 7:30 at the Augusta State Athletic Complex. The women's game begins at 5:30 p.m.
"It's just another game," said Scott, a freshman guard from Eatonton, GA. "I'm just a newcomer. I don't know anything about a rivalry."
The Augusta State-Paine all-time men's series is tied at 12. Augusta won last year's matchup 90-71. Six of their nine games this decade have been decided by eight points or less with three games going into overtime.
This year's matchup features the Jamerson-Scott combo, which made 26 of Paine's 32 3-pointers in its first three games, against an Augusta State team that has allowed 67 of 162 baskets from three-point range, a 41 percent clip that ranks last in the Peach Belt Athletic Conference.
"That's the best part of my game, shooting the outside shot," Jamerson said. "We're really struggling right now to get a win. But sooner or later we're going to put everything together and get going. Once everybody knows their roles, we should be the team to reckon with."
Jamerson and Scott have led Paine in scoring in nearly every game so far. Scott opened the season by scoring 45 points in Paine's first two games, wins over Morris College and Talladega.
In November, Jamerson lit up Tuskegee for 30 points, going 5-of-12 from three-point range, in an 83-82 overtime loss. He followed that game with a 25-point performance in a loss to Belmont Abbey.
However, the two struggled in a pair of losses in the Valdosta State Tournament earlier this month.
"It's been kind of hard a little bit," Scott said. "As a freshman coming out, you're going to expect that. You're expecting to do good at first. I just come out and play my game every night."
Jamerson, a junior forward, averaged 15 points a game and shot 51 percent from three-point range as a high school senior.
At Putnam County, Scott led his team in scoring with 22 points a game his senior year.
The two have jelled on the court and know when to look for each other.
"When he's open, I try to get him the ball because when he's shooting the ball, 90 percent of the time it's going to go in," Jamerson said.
And even if it's not going in, Scott has the Kenny Anderson philosophy tattooed on his brain -- fire until he hits.
"I know that the next one will go. I'll hit two in a row," Scott said.
Paine coach Ron Spry said he knows he hit for two in a row when he found these shooters.
"Besides being good ball players they're both outstanding young men," Spry said. "They don't say a lot. They come to practice and practice, and they come to the game and play."
Reach Chris Gay at (706) 868-1222, Ext. 114, or cag112@hotmail.com.
From the Thursday, December 30, 1999 edition of the Augusta Chronicle
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