Saturday was a great day for the South Georgia Technical College Jets and Lady Jets. The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets clinched their fourth consecutive Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Conference Title and earned the right to host the NJCAA Region XVII end of the season tournament with an impressive 102 – 62 victory over Southern Crescent Technical College Saturday in the Hangar. And after that victory, the Jets came out and took a 68 – 49 win over the Southern Crescent Technical College Tigers to move into third place in the GCAA Division I standings.
“Obviously we are excited about winning the conference because that gives us the opportunity to host the NJCAA Region XVII tournament,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head basketball coach James Frey. “But this is just the first step to our ultimate goal. We have to win the NJCAA Region XVII tournament to get to the District J play-in game before we earn the right to advance to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament. We still have a lot more hoops to jump through to get to our ultimate goal of playing for a national championship.”
As the GCAA Division I women’s basketball conference champions, the Lady Jets will host the semi-finals and finals of the NJCAA Region XVII Tournament on March 1st and 2nd. The Lady Jets will get an automatic bye in the quarter-final round since there are only seven teams in the league. South Georgia Tech will play the winner of the lowest seed on Friday, March 1st at 5:30 p.m. with the remaining two teams battling out for the other final spot on Friday, March 1st at 7:30 p.m. The two winners will advance to the NJCAA Region XVII finals on Saturday, March 2nd at 2 p.m. The winner of the game will host the District J tournament the following week and the winner of that game advances to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament in Lubbock, Texas, March 18th – 23rd.
South Georgia Tech has won the NJCAA Region XVII tournament title for the past two years and have clinched the District J tournament play-in game to travel to the NJCAA National Tournament in Lubbock, Texas for two consecutive years. The Lady Jets are looking for their first three-peat.
In addition to clinching the GCAA Division I title for the fourth consecutive year, Alyssa Nieves shattered another record for the Lady Jets for most three-pointers in a career. The old record was 116 set by Alice Holmes in 2006 – 2008. Alyssa hit five three pointers against Southern Crescent and made seven on Wednesday to shatter that record. She now has 149 successful three-point attempts in her career at SGTC. She also had 91 so far this season.
The sophomore guard and sophomore forward Fatou Pouye both tied for high scoring honors with 26 points each against Southern Crescent. Alyssa was five of seven from the three-point line in the game and is still leading the league in three-point percentage shooting with a 45.5 percent success rate. She is averaging 15.3 points per game which is the third highest average in the league. She has also scored 366 points so far this season. In addition to her 26 points, she had six rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Fatou Pouye had a double-double night with the 26 points and 10 rebounds. She also had two assists and one steal and two blocked shots. Nieves and Pouye were the only two players in double figures for the Lady Jets.
Sophomore Ricka Jackson and freshman Anna McKendree both came up with nine points each, Yasriyyah Wazeerud-Din added seven points and then Mari Hill, Bigue Sarr, and Kamya Hollingshed each posted six points. Oumy Gueye shot for five points and Laky Samo closed out the scoring with two points.
Following that exciting victory, the Jets came out and defeated Southern Crescent Tech 68 – 49 to move into third place in the GCAA behind Central Georgia Tech and Georgia Highlands.
“We are in a good position right now,” said SGTC Jets head coach Travis Garrett. We have only one more loss than Central Georgia Tech and Georgia Highlands and we have four more conference games at home. If we play well, we have a chance to move up and we should host at least one playoff game and possibly the end of the season tournament.”
The Jets came out slow but picked up the pace in the second half to win by 19 points. A very even scoring attack for the Jets was led by freshman guard Toriano Lewis from Richmond, Virginia with 16 points. He was four of four from the three-point line and six of six overall. He had a perfect night and had three rebounds, and one steal.
He was followed by sophomore Adonis Green and freshmen Jeremy Johnson and Jaylan McKinney who had 11 points each. Justin Johnson added ten points of his own to close out the double-digit scoring for the Jets. DJ Fisher accounted for three points and then Sam Matice, Nick Cummings, and Johnathan Tchuisse all added two points.
The Jets will host South Georgia State College on Wednesday, February 20th at 7:30 p.m., and then the Jets and Lady Jets will face Albany Technical College on Saturday, February 23rd at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. for the Alumni/Sophomore Day celebration. The Jet’s next two conference games are also at home. They host Gordon State College on February 27th and East Georgia State College on March 2nd at 6 p.m.
In other men’s action, the top-ranked Central Georgia Tech squad will travel to Southern Crescent Tech on Wednesday, Feb. 20th, host Andrew College on Saturday, February 23rd, and travel to Central Georgia Tech on Wednesday, February 27th. The second place Georgia Highland team will play Gordon College on Wednesday, Feb. 20th, East Georgia on Saturday, Feb. 23rd and Central Georgia Tech on Feb. 27th and Andrew College on March 2nd. The men’s tournament action will kick-off with a quarter-final round on March 5th and then the semi-finals and finals will be played on March 8th and 9th.
