South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets ranked 21st nationally

The top-ranked Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association’s South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets moved up three spots into 21st in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I women’s basketball Top 25 poll released January 31st. South Georgia Tech was in the 24th place spot last week and is still the only Georgia women’s team included in the NJCAA Division I national rankings. The Lady Jets are 7 – 0 in the GCAA and have posted a 19 – 3 overall record this season. They are currently on a seven-game winning streak. “I am disappointed that we didn’t move up more than three places in the pole this week,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey. “Three teams lost last week and stayed in their same positions. We know that we can play and win against some of the higher ranked teams. Motlow State from Tennessee is currently ranked 16th with an 18 – 3 record and we beat them in a head to head contest this season.” Despite his disappointment at not moving up more in the polls, Coach Frey said, “we just need to keep winning and earn the respect of the nominating coaches. Our goal is to put ourselves in a position to go back to the national tournament and compete. We have to keep getting better to realize that goal.” Odessa, Texas remained in the number one spot with an 18 – 0 record. Gulf Coast State remained in second place with a 22 – 1 record. Hutchinson Kansas moved into 3rd place and Chipola from Florida fell to 4th place while New Mexico remained in 5th place this week. The teams that had Coach Frey disturbed were Midland Texas which was in 19th place and remained in 19th place despite a loss. The 20th ranked Northwest Florida team is 14 – 6, lost four games in a row and remained in the 20th place position. Motlow State, which is 18 – 3, is ranked 16th and one of their losses was to South Georgia Tech. “These polls are important because of the at-large bid process and obviously we want to earn a spot to the National Tournament by winning our conference, the NJCAA District 17 tournament and the District J play in game. However, your national ranking can affect your seed in the tournament or if you receive an at-large bid, so it is important,” said Frey. In addition to the Lady Jet’s 21st place overall ranking in the women’s NJCAA Division I basketball poll, the Lady Jets also had several individual players spotlighted. Camille Coleman, Desiree Corbin, Esther Adenike, and Kanna Suzuki are all among the top players in the nation in individual categories. Camille Coleman, a sophomore guard from South Bend, Indiana, is ranked 5th in three point field goal percentage shooting. She is hitting 48% of her shots from the three-point line. She has played in 22 games this season and is averaging 10.4 points per game. The leading three-point shooter in the nation has a 58.3% success rate and is averaging 13.2 points. Sophomore forward Desiree Corbin is currently ranked 14th in the nation in rebounds per game with an average of 10.8. She has played in 22 games this season. The top ranked rebounder in the nation is averaging 15.2. In addition to 14th overall in rebounds per game, Corbin was ranked 11th in defensive rebounding with 7.2 per game. She has a total of 237 rebounds this season which has her in the ninth place national ranking for total number of rebounds this season. Corbin was also ranked nationally in field goal percentage shooting. She is making 56.3% of her attempts this season. The sophomore from Griffin, GA, also earned a ninth place spot in the nation in blocks per game. She is averaging 2.8. The national leader has only played in 13 games and is averaging 3.3 blocks per game. Another SGTC forward, freshman Esther Adenike is ranked nationally in rebounding with a 9.3 average. That put her in the 37th position nationally. She was ranked 35th in the nation in offensive rebounding with an average of 4.0 per game and 17th in total rebounds with 204. The final member of the SGTC Lady Jets enjoying a national ranking is freshman guard Kanna Suzuki from Hamamatsu, Japan. She is ranked 22nd in the nation in assists with 4.8 assists per game. The Lady Jets travel to Cuthbert today to take on Andrew College at 5:30 p.m. and then travel to Macon for a double-header against Central Georgia Tech. The Lady Jets play at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4th and the Jets will follow at 4 p.m. in a match-up against the 2nd place Central Georgia Tech team. The SGTC Jets are currently in third place behind Central Georgia Tech, while the first place Lady Jets are two spots above the third place Central Georgia Tech women.