Cuthbert, GA – South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach Jason Carpenter was able to secure his first Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) conference victory in a 68 – 45 decision against Andrew College in Cuthbert.
“It felt good to get the win,” said Carpenter, whose team is now 8 – 5 on the season and in a three-way tie for first place in the GCAA with East Georgia and Central Georgia Tech, who are also 1 – 0 in the conference.
Andrew College, Albany Tech, and Georgia Highlands are all 0 – 1 in the conference and Southern Crescent Technical College will not play their first conference game until January 10th when they match-up against Georgia Highlands. East Georgia defeated Georgia Highlands 102 – 54 Wednesday and Central Georgia took a narrow 57 – 56 decision from Albany Tech on the road to move to 1 – 0.
While Coach Carpenter was happy about the win Wednesday night against Andrew, he realizes the team has a lot of room for improvement. “We did not play well and we were not very consistent,” said Carpenter, whose team had 19 turnovers and shot 38.6% from the field and 25.9% from the three-point line. They did make seven of their eight free throw attemps.
Despite the 23-point victory, the Lady Jets were only up 31 – 24 at the half and Andrew closed that gap to two points with 6:11 remaining on the clock in the third period when they held the Lady Jets scoreless for almost four minutes. However, the Lady Jets rallied to outscore Andrew 23 – 9 in the third quarter and pull ahead 54 – 31 going into the fourth quarter.
Andrew almost matched the Lady Jets bucket for bucket in the fourth quarter and the Lady Jets were able to walk away with the 68 – 45 decision and secure their first GCAA win of the season on the road.
Sophomore center Maeva Fotsa was the top scorer for the Lady Jets with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore guard Vera Gunaydin was the only other Lady Jet in double-digits with 12 points. Mio Sakano and Enola Pain both added nine points and Greta Carolla and Maria Diaz put up seven points each.
Isabel Bueno and Destiny Bishop both contributed four points and Jessica Kailainy closed out the scoring with two points.
The Lady Jets will attempt to gain another conference win on road Saturday when they travel to East Georgia in Swainsboro for a 1 p.m. tip-off against the Lady Bobcats. They will travel to Central Georgia Tech on Wednesday, January 10th to face Central Georgia Tech at 5:30 p.m. They Jets will play immediately after in a double-header with the CGTC Titans.