Lady Jets take win over Eastern Florida and 9th ranked Gulf Coast comes from behind to beat 12th seeded Shelton State Lady Bucs

The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets rebounded from an embarrassing loss to Shelton State on Sunday to finish the 2018 year with an impressive 81 – 70 victory over a tough Eastern Florida Lady Titan team in the last game of the SGTC Lady Jets Holiday Basketball Classic on New Year’s Eve. In the other final contest, Shelton State let Gulf Coast outscore them 32 – 13 in the fourth quarter and capture a 55 – 48 come from behind victory in a battle between two highly ranked NJCAA squads.
“There was a lot of great basketball played on our court over the past three days,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head basketball coach James Frey. There were eight different men’s and women’s teams from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia battling each other for bragging rights.”
The ninth ranked NJCAA Gulf Coast Lady Commodores left the Lady Jets Holiday Classic with the only unbeaten record. The coup came when they battled back from a 17-point deficit early in the third quarter to come from behind and take the 55 – 48 win away from the 12th ranked Shelton State Lady Bucs.
The Lady Bucs led for most of the game. There were only two ties and one lead change in the 40-minute contest. Gulf Coast is now 11 – 1 on the season and Shelton State dropped to 11 – 3 overall. Shelton State only had two players in double-digits. They were LaTascya Duff with 13 points off the bench and Ataiya Bridges with 12 points. Gulf Coast was led in scoring by Diene Diane with 17 points off the bench. Alexus Dye also came off the bench to score 15 points and Brittany Davis managed to post 10 points to close out the double digit scoring for the Lady Commodores.
In the South Georgia Tech contest against Eastern Florida, which finished the tournament with a 1- 2 overall record, the Lady Jets were down 22 – 19 at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Jets outscored Eastern Florida, 17 – 11 in the second quarter to take a narrow 36 – 33 lead at the end of the first half. Eastern Florida came back in the third period to take a 44 – 43 lead. South Georgia Tech rallied in the fourth period to outscore the Lady Titans 28 – 16 and take the 81 – 70 victory to move to 14 – 2 overall.
Three sophomores led the scoring efforts for the Lady Jets. Forward Fatou Pouye led the team with 17 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double effort. Center Bigue Sarr came up with 16 points and eight rebounds and guard Alyssa Nieves added 15 points. Sophomores Mari Hill and Ricka Jackson accounted for nine and eight points respectively. Freshmen Yasriyyah Wazeerud-Din scored six points and Anna McKendree followed with five. Kamya Hollingshed had three points and Laky Samo closed out the scoring with two points.
Eastern Florida had five players in double-figures. Sierra Votaw was the top scorer with 16 points, Angeni Worley had 14, Jacquelyn Levay came up with 11 and then Tynasia Bunting and Isabella Lopez closed out the double-digit scoring with 10 points each.
The Gulf Coast Lady Commodores were 3 – 0 in the tournament with wins over Eastern Florida, Georgia Highlands and Shelton State. Shelton State and South Georgia Tech both came out with 2 wins and one loss. St. Petersburg and Georgia Highlands both finished without a victory.
The Jets and Lady Jets both travel to Macon for a conference doubleheader against Central Georgia Tech on Wednesday, January 2nd with the Lady Jets opening at 5:30 and the Jets following at 7:30.