The Chipola Lady Indians demonstrated why they are ranked second in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national rankings Monday night when they moved to 14 – 0 on the season in an 83 – 46 win over the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets in the SGTC Holiday Classic.
In the opening game Monday night, 11th ranked Shelton state defeated St. Petersburg Community College, 77 – 56, and then Eastern Florida came from behind to defeat Cleveland Community College 77 – 69 in overtime. Chipola finished out the night with the 37-point victory over the Lady Jets.
The action will resume today, Tuesday, December 30th at 3 p.m. with Cleveland Community College facing St. Petersburg. Then at 5 p.m., 11th ranked Shelton State will take on the 2nd ranked Chipola College Lady Indians and South Georgia Tech will match-up against Eastern Florida at 7 p.m. The tournament wraps up on New Year’s Eve with a 1 p.m. game featuring Eastern Florida and Shelton State and a 3 p.m. game with Chipola and Cleveland Community College.
The loss to Chipola dropped the Lady Jets to 4 – 10 on the season. This was their second loss to Chipola. They lost to Chipola, 84 – 61 on December 6th and then Chipola got them again in this tournament, 83 – 46.
Chipola led by as many as 40 points in the match-up and South Georgia Tech fell behind early and never managed to take the lead or tie the game in the 40-minute contest. The Lady Jets were down 17 – 3 with less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter before rallying to score six quick points and end the first period only down 19 – 9.
In the second quarter, Chipola outscored the Lady Jets 19 – 14 to take a 38 – 23 lead at the half. Chipola outscored the Lady Jets 45 – 23 in the second half to clinch the 83 – 46 decision. Chipola’s bench scored 41 points and SGTC’s only contributed two points.
Taja Bennett, a sophomore guard from Dallas, Texas was the leading scorer for the Lady Jets with 14 points and she was followed by Jaidyn Elam, a sophomore guard from Pontiac, MI, who contributed 12 points. Ja’Niya Broome and Glory Kaine both tossed in nine points each and Candice Ganga closed out the scoring with two points. Candice Ganga led the team in rebounds with six.
Despite the lopsided victory, Chipola’s scoring was spread out. Only two players reached double-digits. Taylor Rietveld and Ariella Facyson were the top scorers with 14 and 12 points respectively. Rietveld was also the leading rebounder with 10 to post a double-double night.