Lady Jets ranked 7th in the NJCAA Division I rankings

The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets moved up one spot into 7th place in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I women’s basketball rankings this week. The Lady Jets were ranked 8th last week and were seeded 13th in the NJCAA pre-season poll. The Lady Jets are currently 12 -1 overall and in first place in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association Conference with a 6 – 0 record. “We just have to keep winning,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey. “We set our goals at the beginning of the season and ultimately our goal is to return to the NJCAA National Championship and come home with a trophy. To do that, we have to keep playing hard and doing all the right things on the court and in the classroom. We have had some good games this week but our biggest challenge will come right after Christmas when we play the top ranked Gulf Coast State team.” The defending national champion Gulf Coast State team is currently ranked 1st in the NJCAA December 12th poll with a perfect 9 – 0 record. They are followed by Shelton State, 11 – 0; New Mexico, 15 – 0; Tallahassee, 10 – 0 and Northwest Florida State with an 11 – 0 record. Trinity Valley fell from second place to sixth after a loss to put them at 13 – 1. The South Georgia Tech Lady Jets climbed to 7th and they are followed by Jones County at 6 – 1, Salt Lake in ninth at 10 – 3 and Pensacola State closed out the top 10 with a 16 – 0 record. South Georgia Technical College is still the only Georgia squad in the NJCAA Top 25 national rankings. The Lady Jets are currently 12 – 1 overall and 6 – 0 in their conference. They are ranked first in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association. In addition to the national team ranking, two of the Lady Jets are included in the individual rankings nationally. Sophomore Esther Adenike, 6’ 2” forward from Nigeria, and Houlfat Mahouchiza, a 6’ 1” forward from France, were both included in the individual rankings nationally. Adenike is currently listed as 11th in rebounds per game with an average of 11.3 per game. The leader averages 15.3 per game. She is 13th in the nation in total rebounds this season with 136. She is also listed as 12th in defensive rebounds with an average of 7.0 and 25th in offensive rebounds per game with an average of 4.3. Her teammate, Houlfat Mahouchiza is currently ranked 17th in the nation in blocked shots per game. She is averaging blocking 2.3 shots each outing. She also climbed up seven spots in the Top 50 in field goal percentage shooting. Mahouchiza is ranked 39th and making 55.7% of her shots. That is up from a 46th place ranking last week. She is also shooting 82.4% from foul line and is ranked 44th in the nation in that category. The SGTC Jets had two players included in the NJCAA individual rankings. Sophomore Marquel Wiggins of Oglethorpe, GA, returned for the second week. He is currently ranked 6th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game. The 6’ 6” forward is averaging 4.9 offensive rebounds per game. He is ranked 23rd in total rebounds per game with an average of 10. He is also listed as 35th in the nation in points per game with an average of 20 per outing. He has played and started in all 10 games for the Jets this season. Sophomore transfer DeVante Foster, a 6’ 9” forward from Stockbridge, GA; is shooting 52.6% percent from the three-point line. That is 25th in the NJCAA.