The opening day action of the South Georgia Technical College Jets Holiday Classic was not kind to the home team. The Jets faced Summer Hill Prep in the last game on the opening day of the tournament and suffered an 85 – 71 loss to the Blue Devils.
Central Georgia Technical College also came up short in a 62 – 44 loss to the St. Petersburg College Titans and despite struggling, the Shelton State Buccaneers took a narrow 87 – 83 win over Middle Georgia Prep. The second day action will pit Shelton State vs. St. Petersburg, Central Georgia Tech vs. Summer Hill Prep and South Georgia Tech against Middle Georgia Prep.
The South Georgia Technical College Jets struggled in the first half and that ended up costing them the win. The Jets allowed the Blue Devils to score first. South Georgia Tech did come back and overcome a slight deficit and actually pulled ahead by five points with 12-minutes left in the half. But a strong run that resulted in a swing of 19-points allowed the Summer Hill Blue Devils to take a comfortable 35 – 21 lead at the half.
Those 14 first half points would prove to be too much of a hurdle for the Jets to overcome in the second half. Despite pulling within two points of the Blue Devils early in the second half, they were still 14 points behind at the final buzzer. Both South Georgia Tech and Summer Hill Prep scored 50 points in the second half.
Freshman guard Austin Hadden ended up leading the Jets in scoring with a total of 23 points on the night. He scored all 23 points in the second half. He led the team in three-point shooting, hitting four of eight attempts. He was four of six in the second half. He also hit three of four foul shots and then had another eight points from the field. He pulled down six rebounds as well.
The only other Jet in double-figures was sophomore guard Justin Johnson with a total of 20 points. He led the team in scoring at the end of the first half with seven points. He was the leading rebounder for the team with nine. Freshman Denari Garrett added nine points for the Jets and freshman Lamont Sanders came up with seven points.
Sophomore guard Toriano Lewis accounted for four points and then Brice Paster, Jalen Reynolds, Tabais Long, and Merdy Bata closed out the scoring with two points each.
The Jets dropped to 6 – 7 on the season after that loss. They will look to get back to the .500 mark in the second day action when they face Middle Georgia Prep. After the men’s tournament ends, the Lady Jets will host two nationally ranked women’s team on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the Lady Jets Holiday Classic.