The National Junior College Athletic Association’s (NJCAA) 4th ranked Gulf Coast Lady Commodores went 3 – 0 in the Lady Jets Holiday Classic tournament to take bragging rights in the eight-team tournament that had three of the top-ranked NJCAA Division I teams in the nation competing against each other.
The Lady Jets took a 74 – 69 win over Snow College in a pre-tournament game Thursday before losing to Gulf Coast State 66 – 49 on Friday and escaping with a 61 – 60 win over St. Petersburg College on Saturday. Gulf Coast defeated Snow College, 94 – 65, and Shelton State, 86 – 79, to move through the tournament unscathed.
Twentieth ranked Shelton State and seventh ranked Pensacola both were 2 – 1 in the tournament. Shelton State lost to Gulf Coast and upset Pensacola State, 76 – 69, and walked away with a 96 – 45 win over Tallahassee Community College. Pensacola lost to Shelton but took an 87 – 68 win over Daytona State and a 100 – 54 win over St. Petersburg College. Dayton State College also came away 2 – 1 with wins over Snow College (60 – 42) and Tallahassee (71 – 54). They lost to Pensacola State, 87 – 68.
South Georgia Tech was 1 – 1 in the tournament, Tallahassee Community College was 1 – 2, Snow College finished 0 – 2 in the tournament and St. Petersburg Community College was winless at 0 – 3 on the long weekend.
The Lady Jets drew Gulf Coast in their opening game and scored first. But that lead was short lived as the Lady Commodores pulled ahead 10 – 8 with 3:33 remaining in the first quarter and never looked back. They were up 14 – 9 at the end of that first period and had stretched it to a 30 – 20 lead at the end of the first half. The Lady Commodores continued to outscore the Lady Jets in the third and fourth quarters to capture the 66 – 49 victory and move to 11 – 1 on the season.
Freshman guard Mio Sakano was the top scorer for the Lady Jets in that match-up with 15 points, two rebounds, three assists and one steal. Maeva Fotsa was the only other Lady Jet in double digits with 10 points and three rebounds.
Vera Gunaydin added nine points, Isabel de Souza Bueno tossed in seven points, Enola Papin had six and Maria Diaz scored two points to close out the scoring for the Lady Jets.
The Lady Jets bounced back from their loss to the fourth-ranked Gulf Coast team and escaped with a narrow 61 – 60 victory over St. Petersburg College to move to 1- 1 in the tournament and 7 – 5 overall.
A technical foul on the Lady Jets with 8.7 seconds remaining allowed St. Petersburg to overcome a four-point deficit and tie the game at 60 – 60 with 3.2 seconds remaining. The Lady Jets, Enola Papin, a freshman guard from Saint Etienne, France, hit two freethrows with 8.7 seconds remaining in the game to give the Lady Jets a 60 – 56 lead.
Lady Jets head coach Jason Carpenter tried to call a timeout, but the officials missed the signal. They later called a technical foul on SGTC and that allowed St. Petersburg to go to the foul line. They sank both shots and got the ball back. A quick layup and the game was tied at 60 – 60 with 3.1 seconds remaining.
The Lady Jets took the ball out and Maeva Fotsa attempted a layup and was fouled. She missed the first free throw but made the second one to give the Lady jets the 61 – 60 lead with 1.9 seconds remaining. The Lady Jets hung on to the narrow lead and captured the win.
Freshman guard Mio Sakano was the leading scorer again for the Lady Jets with 18 points. Enola Papin, and Maria Diaz both added 12 points and Isabel de Souza Bueno came up with 11 points to close out the double-digit scoring. Maeva Fotsa added seven points including the game-winning free throw and then Maria Favero came away with one point.
The Lady Jets will travel to Cuthbert on Wednesday, January 3, to open up their Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) schedule against Andrew College at 5:30 p.m. They will travel to Swainsboro on Saturday, January 6 for a conference match-up against East Georgia at 1 p.m. and then travel to Central Georgia Tech on Wednesday, January 10 before returning home for conference games against Andrew College on January 13 and Georgia Highlands on January 17.
The Jets will travel to Coastal Alabama on Saturday, January 6 for their first game after the holiday break. They will host Red Line Prep at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 8 before traveling to Macon on January 10 for a conference game with Central Georgia Tech in a double-header. The Lady Jets play at 5:30 and the Jets at 7:30 p.m.