The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets will face East Georgia State College at 8 p.m. Friday, April 2nd at Georgia Highlands College in Rome, GA in a semi-final round of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 17 end of the season tournament.
South Georgia Technical College finished 2nd in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) regular season to earn a bye in the quarter-final round of the NJCAA Region 17 tournament. The Lady Jets are currently 13 – 2 in the conference and 19 – 3 overall. Georgia Highlands, 14 – 1 and 19 – 2, finished first and also received a bye in the quarter-final round.
East Georgia advanced to the semi-finals to face South Georgia Technical College after they defeated Andrew College, 60 – 50 in the quarter-final round Tuesday, March 30th. South Georgia Tech defeated East Georgia three times in the regular season. The first game was 84 – 54 but then East Georgia pulled within one point in a 63 – 62 loss to the Lady Jets before SGTC came back and won 71 – 63 in the last meeting between the two teams.
The winner of the 8 p.m. Friday game will advance to the finals, which will be played at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 3rd at Georgia Highlands College in Rome, GA. The winner of the Georgia Highlands –Central Georgia Tech semi-final game at 6 p.m. Friday, April 2nd will advance to the finals also.
Georgia Highlands captured the GCAA regular season conference title with a 14 – 1 record. They edged out the Lady Jets from their fifth consecutive GCAA regular season title after the Lady Jets lost 78 – 64 and 72 – 65 in back to back battles in Rome. The Lady Jets did take an 84 – 82 double overtime win over Georgia Highlands in Americus in their first meeting this season.
Central Georgia Tech, 3 – 12, 4 - 13, advanced to the semi-finals after upsetting the higher seeded Albany Tech Titans 70 – 57 in the quarter-final round in Albany. Central Georgia Tech lost to Georgia Highlands three times this season, 80 – 46, 71 – 46, and 84 – 54.
If South Georgia Technical College and Georgia Highlands advance to the NJCAA Region 17 tournament finals, this will be the sixth time in eight years that the two teams have met in the finals. South Georgia Tech has won four of the matches and lost only once to Georgia Highlands.
The two teams first met in the finals in 2013 – 2014 and SGTC won, 59 – 54, in 2014 – 2015, SGTC defeated Darton to win the title. In the 2015 – 2016 tournament, Georgia Highlands took a narrow 65 – 63 victory and then South Georgia Tech came back in 2016 – 2017 for payback and defeated Georgia Highlands, 65 – 63.
In 2017 – 2018 tournament, South Georgia Tech came away with a 2 – 0 forfeit win over Central Georgia Tech. Georgia Highlands and Central Georgia Technical College players were ejected in the semi-final round and Central Georgia Tech had to finish the game with four players. The ejected players were required to sit out one game. Central Georgia Tech could not start a game with four players so they were forced to forfeit the championship game 2 – 0.
For the past two years, South Georgia Technical College has walked away with the tournament title in a 75 – 57 and 69 – 63 decision. Both were played on SGTC’s home court.