The Lady Jets and five other teams participated in the South Georgia Technical College Pete Arrington Basketball Classic during the Thanksgiving Break. The Lady Jets struggled in a 99 – 48 loss to the 17th nationally ranked Chipola College Indians but then rebounded to a narrow 65 – 62 come from behind win over the Miami-Dade Sharks on Saturday. The Lady Jets are 4 – 2 on the season.
South Georgia Technical College, Andrew College, Georgia Highlands, Tallahassee Community College, Chipola College and Miami-Dade College were the six teams in the tournament. Chipola and Tallahassee both came away from the tournament undefeated.
Destiny Bishop, 3, was the top scorer for the Lady Jets in the Chipola game.
The nationally ranked Chipola Indians defeated South Georgia Tech 99 – 48 on Friday and then walked away with a 100 – 43 decision against Andrew College on Saturday. Tallahassee opened up with a 69 – 37 win over Andrew College and then rolled to a 101 – 68 victory against Georgia Highlands, Saturday.
Andrew College and Georgia Highlands were 0 – 2 on the tournament. Georgia Highlands lost 92 – 73 in their opening game against Miami-Dade College. South Georgia Tech and Miami Dade College both ended the tournament with 1 – 1 records.
In the opening game against Chipola, South Georgia Tech struggled from the opening buzzer. They had a short-lived 3 – 2 lead with 8:23 showing on the clock in the first quarter. But in less than a minute, Chipola scored and never relinquished the lead. SGTC did pull with two points in the second quarter after being down 25 – 6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Jets outscored Chiploa 26 – 19 in the second quarter and managed to pull within two points of Chipola, 27 – 25, with 5:38 remaining in the half. But that was as close as the Lady Jets could come after only scoring a combined total of 16 points in the second half while Chiploa posted 55.
Maeva Fotsa, 22, led the Lady Jets in scoring with 18 points against Miami Dade.
Destiny Bishop, a 5’8” freshman guard, was the leading scorer for the Lady Jets in that game with 13 points. She was the only SGTC player in double digits. Vera Gunaydin had nine points, Enola Pain tossed in eight and Isabel de Souza Bueno had seven. Mio Sakano added four, Hinano Imamura had three points and Maria Diaz and Maeva Fotsa closed out the scoring with two points each.
The Lady Jets shot 29.5% from the field, 24.1 % from the three-point line and made 45% of their free throws. They also had 26 turnovers.
After that disastrous loss, the Lady Jets regained their composure and bounced back to a 65 – 62 win over Miami-Dade College. The Lady Jets scored first in that match-up and were up 15 – 6 by the end of the first quarter. That nine-point lead was the largest of the game which had six lead changes and six ties.
Miami-Dade outscored the Lady Jets 17 – 8 in the second quarter and 19 – 11 in the third quarter to pull ahead 42 – 34 at the end of three quarters. A strong fourth-quarter rally by the Lady Jets allowed them to come from behind and take the narrow 65 – 62 victory.
Maeva Fotsa, 6’ 2” sophomore center for the Lady Jets was the top scorer with 18 points. Sophomore guard Vera Gunnaydin and Isabel de Souza, a 5’ 6” sophomore guard, both also scored in double digits with 15 and 12 points. Mio Sakano added six points, Maria Favero came away with five points and Enola Papin had four. Hinano Imamura and Destiny Bishop had three and two points respectively.
The Lady Jets still struggled offensively shooting 34.4% from the floor, 25% from the three-point line but did make 14 of 17 free throws. Maeva Fotsa and Mio Sakano both made free throws in the final minute to help lift the Lady Jets to the 65 – 62 victory. The Lady Jets had 17 turnovers.
The Lady Jets next three games are on the road. They travel to Chattahoochee Valley Community College on December 9, Shelton State for the Shelton State Classic on December 15 and 16. They open with Shelton State on the 15th and have a rematch with Chipola on the 16th.
They will return home for a game against Snow College on December 28 at 6 p.m. and then play Gulf Coast State College and St. Petersburg College on December 29 and 30 in the Lady Jets Holiday Classic at 6 p.m.