The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets posted an 81 – 64 victory over Central Georgia Technical College after outscoring the Lady Titans 31 – 18 in the fourth quarter to capture their seventh consecutive Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) victory and move to 17 – 2 overall this season. The Jets missed a last second three-point shot attempt to come up three points shy in their battle with Central Georgia Technical College’s Titans to fall to 1 – 1 in the conference and 8 – 8 overall.
“We played a good fourth quarter but we can’t play in spurts and continue to win,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey after the Lady Jets turned a narrow 32 – 28 half-time lead into a 17-point conference victory over Central Georgia Tech. “We have got to get to the point where we don’t turn it off and on. We need to play hard for the entire 40-minutes.”
The Jets put forth a very good late second half effort but wound up three-points shy of their second conference win this season. The Jets trailed 32 – 28 at the half but let Central Georgia Tech stretch that lead to 12 points and go ahead 44 – 32 earlier in the second half. The Jets rallied and took their first lead of the night with a 46 – 45 lead with 2:49 remaining in the game. The final score had the Jets down 51 – 48.
“I was very proud of the way we came back at the end and made Central Georgia Tech work for the win. The team could have given up when we were down by 12 but they didn’t. They fought back and we were in the game up until the final buzzer,” said Jets head coach Travis Garrett. “We had several chances to tie the game or pull ahead in the last minute but the ball just didn’t fall.”
The Jets are now 8 – 8 on the season and 1 – 1 in the conference. They dropped from a three-way tie for first place into fifth place behind South Georgia, Albany Tech, Georgia Highlands, and Central Georgia Tech. The Lady Jets are still in first place and are the only unbeaten women’s team in conference play.
The Lady Jets did not start the game as well as they finished the match-up with Central Georgia Tech. The Lady Jets were up 14 – 13 at the end of the first quarter after falling behind 6 – 0. The first half saw nine different lead changes and six ties before South Georgia Tech finally went into the half with a 32 – 27 lead. The two teams continued to battle in the third quarter and Central Georgia Tech outscored the Lady Jets 19 – 18 to close the gap to 50 – 46.
However, the Lady Jets kicked into high gear in the final 10-minutes to come away with the 17-point GCAA conference win over Central Georgia Tech. Sophomore Anna McKendree, came off the bench to have her best game yet with 25 points. She hit five of 11 from the three-point line. She scored 16 of her points in the second half to help lead the team to the victory.
Sophomore forward Yasriyyah Wazeerud-Din and sophomore guard Shamari Tyson were the only two other Lady Jets in double-figures. Wazeerud-Din had 15 points and five steals along with five rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot. Tyson had 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Freshman Hope Butera came off the bench to score nine points. Flore Ngasamputu had six points, Moe Shida added four points, Niya Gudelock and Oumy Gueye both had three points and then Amara Edeh and Sarah Lwambo scored two points each. Oumy Gueye was the only Lady Jets in double-digits in rebounds with 10.
The Jets were lead in scoring by Lamont Sanders. He was the only Jet in double figures with 15 points and he sank seven of eight free throws, many in the second half, to help the Jets in their come-from behind attempt. Merdy Bata and Brice Paster both had eight points, Denari Garrett scored five points, Jonathan Kanyanga added four points, Toriano Lewis had three and Justin Johnson, and Tabais Long accounted for two points each. Austin Hadden closed out the scoring with one point.
The Jets and the Lady Jets have two tough conference games this week as they travel to Cuthbert on Wednesday for a double-header with Andrew. The Lady Jets open at 5:30 and the Jets follow at 7:30 p.m. Then the two teams travel to Rome to take on Georgia Highlands at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Lamont Sanders, 1, hit seven of eight free throws and had 15 points against Central Georgia Tech for the Jets.