The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets were able to move back into the 16th position in this week’s National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) women’s basketball national rankings after taking wins over Andrew College and Georgia Highlands. The Lady Jets fell to 17th after a narrow loss to 10th ranked Shelton State in the Lady Jets Holiday Classic tournament at the end of December.
The Lady Jets are 19 – 2 overall and 9 -0 in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association. The Lady Jets were ranked 24th in the pre-season national poll, then moved up three spots into 21st place prior to the Thanksgiving break. They climbed to 19th place, and then moved up another two spots into 17th before climbing into the 16th position at the end of the year. They fell to 17th in the first poll of 2020. South Georgia Technical College is the only Georgia college currently ranked in the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball National rankings.
Gulf Coast retained their top spot in the rankings with a 15 – 0 record and South Plains from Texas is also undefeated at 19 – 0 and is currently second in the rankings. Chipola College in Florida, Trinity Valley from Texas, and Tyler from Texas, are ranked third, fourth, and fifth this week.
New Mexico, Western Nebraska, Shelton State, Northwest Florida State and Hutchinson, Kansas; rounded out the top 10 spots. Jones, Seward County, Central Arizona, Florida Southwestern State and Wabash Valley are in the 11th – 15th spots ahead of South Georgia Technical College.
“I felt like we had a chance to move back up this week since there were a couple of teams ahead of us who lost,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey. “Shelton State is now ranked number eight overall so we lost to a really good team and we were in a position to pull off an upset. So I thought we might move back up.”
In addition to their national team ranking, four Lady Jets also earned national recognition for their individual play on the court and freshman center Femme Sikuzani from the Congo is currently listed as the fourth leading rebounder in the nation. She dropped from second place last week and now has a total of 237 rebounds this season in her 21 games.
Sikuzani from Goma, DRC, is ranked in five different categories. The 6’ 5” center is averaging a total of 11.3 rebounds per game which is currently 15th overall in the nation.
She is currently listed as 15th in the nation in offensive rebounds with an average of 4.9 per game and 28th in the nation in defensive rebounds with 6.4 per outing. And she is currently ranked 32nd overall in field goal percentage shooting with a 56.6 percent success rate on her shots.
Three other members of the Lady Jets garnered national attention for their aggressive offensive and defensive skills. Sophomore transfer Shamari Tyson, who transferred in from Southeastern Illinois College, this season is in 19th place in the nation in assists per game with an average of 5.3.
Sophomore Anna McKendree was listed in two different NJCAA individual stats this week. She is ranked 19th in the nation in steals with an average of 3.4 per game and she was also listed as 35th in three-point percentage shooting. She has hit 42.6 percent of her three-point attempts this season.
Sophomore Yasriyyah Wazeerund-Din was the fourth Lady Jet to make the individual national rankings. She is currently listed as 18th in nation in steals with an average of 3.4 per game.