“A great win,” was the way South Georgia Technical College Jets head coach Chris Ballauer described the Jets 61 – 56 win over the National Junior College Athletic Association’s (NJCAA) eight ranked Florida Southwestern Buccaneers in the Veterans Day Classic in the Hangar on the Americus campus Friday night.
In the opening game of the Veterans Day Classic Coastal Alabama defeated East Georgia State College and former Jets head coach Travis Garrett in a narrow 89 – 85 overtime victory. Florida Southwestern will open against East Georgia at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 11, and the Jets will face Coastal Alabama at 3 p.m. The Lady Jets will play Chattahoochee Valley Community College at 5 p.m. in the Hangar.
The win moved the Jets to 2 – 1 and gave them their second consecutive victory of the young season. This was Florida Southwestern’s first loss of the year and they are now 1 – 1 overall.
The Jets scored first and maintained a narrow lead for most of the first half, until Florida Southwestern stepped up late in the first half and pulled ahead 28 – 26 at the buzzer. The Jets managed to go up by eight at one point early in the first half. There was a total of 12 lead changes and 10 ties in the 40-minute contest.
Neither team shot very well with Florida Southwestern shooting 37.5% from the field and only 18.8% from the three-point line. They also struggled at the foul line only making five of 13 attempts. The Jets only hit 33.9% of their total shots and were 23.1% from the three-point line. They did make 60.6% of their free throws hitting 20 of 33 attempts.
Sophomore guard Deonte Williams from Sydney, Australia, was the top scorer for the Jets with 14 points including four of six free throw attempts. He also had three rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Four Jets managed to break into double digits in the very tough defensive battle. In addition to Williams, sophomore forward Ryan Djoussa from Paris, France, had 12 points. He also had 12 rebounds, two assists and three blocked shots. Freshman forward Israel Momodu and sophomore guard Mohand Ammad both contributed 11 points each. Momodu hit free throws down the stretch to help clinch the victory. He also tied Djoussa as the leading rebounder with 12. He also had two assists, a blocked shot and a steal.
Kameron Foman tossed in nine points for the Jets and then Camarion Johnson and Justin Evans closed out the scoring with two points each.
Dezdrick Lindsay led Florida Southwestern with 15 points. Jaehshon Thomas and Karmani Gregory were the only other two Bucs in double-digits and they had 12 and 11 points respectively.