The South Georgia Technical College Jets and Lady Jets hosted Andrew College during its Alumni – Sophomore Day celebration Saturday before a large crowd. The nationally ranked Lady Jets put on a magnificent display on their way to a 101 – 54 Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) conference win while the Jets came up five points shy, 73 – 68 to the Andrew College Tigers.
The win over the sixth-seeded Andrew College Lady Tigers propelled the top-ranked 15 – 0 Lady Jets one step closer to their fourth consecutive GCAA regular season conference title. The Lady Jets are now 25 – 2 overall.
Even though the crowd was routing for a sweep on the Alumni – Sophomore Celebration Day, the Jets just couldn’t pull it out and fell to Andrew College for the second time this season in a narrow loss. This was the Jets 10th loss this season by seven points or less. The Jets are now 10 – 15 overall and 3 – 8 in the conference.
“I thought the Lady Jets played exceptionally well in the first half against Andrew College,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head basketball coach James Frey. “We hit nine of 15 attempts from the three-point line in the first half to shoot above 60%. We did not do that well in the second half but overall we shot about 50% from the field.”
The Lady Jets were up 62 – 25 at the end of the first half and went on to capture the 101 – 54 victory in the second half. Five Lady Jets scored in double-figures in that game. Sophomore Shamari Tyson had a total of 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Sophomore Anna McKendree was closed behind with 15 points, two rebounds, five assists and three steals. Niya Goudelock and Veronica Charles both added 14 points. Niya Goudelock had one rebound, three assists and four steals and Charles had one rebound and one assist. Oumy Gueye closed out the double digit scoring with 11 points, three rebounds and one assist.
Femme Sikuzani accounted for nine points and five rebounds. Yasriyyah Wazeerud-Din came up with eight points and Moe Shida had six points. Flore Ngasamputu and Hope Butera closed out the scoring with two points each.
Following the one-sided victory for the Lady Jets, the Jets came out and kept battling with Andrew College for the lead. The first half had three lead changes and three ties before Andrew went up 35 – 33 at the end of the first 20-minutes.
The Jets continued to battle back and overcame a nine-point deficit within the last five minutes to pull closer until Andrew College took command and secured the 73 – 68 victory.
Sophomore Justin Johnson led the Jets in scoring with 14 points, Toriano Lewis added 12 points and Jarius Carroll scored 11 points. Jaylen McKinney came up with nine points, Jalen Reynold had six, Lamont Sanders and Merdy Bata both had four and then Denari Garrett, Tabais Long, DJ Fisher and Jonathan Kanyanga claimed two points each.
were The Lady Jets are now 14 – 0 in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) conference and 24 – 2 overall. The Lady Jets have four games remaining before the NJCAA Region XVII tournament.
The Jets and the Lady Jets will host Georgia Highlands on Wednesday, February 12th at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The two teams will travel to Southern Crescent Technical College on Wednesday, February 19th for a double-header in Griffin at 5:30 and 7 :30 p.m. and then the Lady Jets will travel to Albany Technical College on Saturday, February 22nd at 1 p.m. for their last regular season conference game.
The NJCAA Region XVII tournament quarter-final games are set to begin on February 22nd. The semi-finals and the finals will be played on February 28th and 29th at the GCAA Champions home court.
Sophomore Toriano Lewis, 0, drives for the basket. He had 12 points for the Jets.