SGTC Lady Jets win NJCAA Region XVII Tournament

The nationally ranked South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets captured their second consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I women’s basketball title and are now only one game away from earning their fifth trip to the NJCAA Division I women’s basketball National Tournament. They Lady Jets are now 27 – 5 overall and 17 – 1 in conference play.
The Lady Jets defeated the East Georgia State College Lady Bobcats in a hard-fought 61 – 52 decision in the semi-final round of the NJCAA Region XVII end of the season tournament. The Lady Jets then took a 2 – 0 victory over Central Georgia Technical College in the championship game when Central Georgia Tech forfeited. Central Georgia Tech defeated Georgia Highlands 78 – 74 with only four eligible players in their semi-final match-up. A team cannot start a game with four players so Central Georgia Tech was forced to forfeit the championship game to South Georgia Tech.
South Georgia Technical College’s Lady Jets will travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina to face Spartanburg Methodist College on Saturday, March 10th at 2 p.m. in the NJCAA District J Championship. The winner of that game will earn the right to advance to the NJCAA Women’s Division I National Championship in Lubbock, Texas, March 19th – 24th. This would be Lady Jets head coach James Frey’s fourth trip to the national tournament in five years and the fifth trip for the Lady Jets in nine years. The Lady Jets are currently ranked 23rd in the nation.
“There is only one game or one team standing between the Lady Jets and the opportunity to return to the national tournament,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey. “This has been our goal since day one. Now we just need to make it happen.”
Spartanburg Methodist defeated Denmark Technical College 71 – 66 in the NJCAA Division I Region X Conference Tournament on Saturday, March 2nd to qualify for the District J game. South Georgia Tech defeated Denmark Tech earlier this season (57 – 26) and defeated them 91 – 58 in 2017 to advance to the NJCAA National Tournament.
“We don’t know very much about Spartanburg Methodist, but right now they are the team we need to beat to earn the right to compete at the national tournament, so we have to come ready to play,” said SGTC’s Frey. “They had two starters that scored in double-figures against Denmark Tech so we know they can score. They hit nearly 70% of their three point attempts and 44% of their field goal shots. We will have to play aggressive defense and do a better job of scoring if we want to win.”
The Lady Jets are on a nine-game winning streak. They were seeded as high as 8th place in the NJCAA National Rankings before losing to the defending NJCAA National Champion Gulf Coast squad and another top ranked Eastern Florida State College. Four of the Lady Jets losses this season were by eight points or less and two of those losses were by three points or less.
Coach James Frey has been at the helm of the Lady Jets for six seasons. He has been selected as the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Coach of the Year four times in those six season, won five GCAA regular season titles, four NJCAA Region XVII tournaments and three NJCAA District J championships. He is hoping that his team is able to convert this latest NJCAA Region XVII championship into his fourth trip to the nationals with the Lady Jets in six years. During his six years at SGTC, Frey has put together 20-plus winning records each season. His record at SGTC is 162 – 40. The Lady Jets have finished in the NJCAA Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight in their national tournament trips with Coach Frey.
Lady Jets Assistant Coach Kezia Conyers has been with Frey and the Lady Jets for five seasons. She has been a part of 141 of those 162 wins and has only 27 losses in her tenure. She has also helped coach at three of the Lady Jets four national tournament trips.
The Lady Jets were able to advance the District J tournament with the help of GCAA Player of the Year Esther Adenike from Lagos, Nigeria. She had 20 points and nine rebounds to lead her team from a come-from behind victory against East Georgia State College in the NJCAA Region XVII tournament. Freshman shooting forward Ricka Jackson was the only other Lady Jet in double-figures and she had 17 points and five rebounds.
Sophomore forward Houlfat Mahouchiza contributed nine points and two rebounds, sophomore guard Dakata Toney added five points and then freshman guard Aubrey Maulden had three points. Kayla Holmes, Cedeja James, and Secret Ethridge each scored two points and Bigue Sarr closed out the scoring with one point.
The Lady Jets trailed 13 – 6 at the end of the first quarter and were still down 21 – 19 at the half. They came back in the second half and outscored the Lady Bobcats 22 – 15 in the third quarter and 20 – 16 in the fourth quarter to take the 61 – 52 victory.
Only the top 24 teams in the nation qualify for the NJCAA National Tournament which is held in the Rip Griffin Center in Lubbock, Texas, March 19th – 24th. The NJCAA will release the 2018 Division I men’s and women’s basketball championship seeding and at-large bids vis livestream on the NJCAA Selection Show on Monday, March 12. The women’s show will air at 11 a.m. and the men’s show will air at 12:30 p.m. on www.njcaatv.com.

South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets sophomore Esther Adenike from Lagos, Nigeria is shown above accepting the GCAA Player of the Year award from GCAA Executive Director David Elder.

GCAA Executive Director is shown above (r) presenting the GCAA Coach of the Year award to Lady Jets coach James Frey who shared the honor with assistant coach Kezia Conyers.