Lady Jets secure first place in the GCAA and move closer to hosting the NJCAA Region XVII tournament

SWAINSBORO, Ga – The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets may have clinched first place in Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Division I women’s standings Saturday and the opportunity to host the NJCAA Region XVII tournament. The Lady Jets secured a narrow 78 – 72 win over the second ranked East Georgia State College Lady Bobcats in Swainsboro and are now 9- 1 in the conference. East Georgia fell to 7 – 3.
The Jets did not fare nearly as well in the double-header. They came out sluggish and were down 38 – 19 at the half and ended up losing 81 – 49. The loss dropped them to fourth place in the GCAA behind South Georgia State College (9 – 1), Albany Tech (7 – 2) and East Georgia (7-4) which moved up from fourth into third place with their impressive win over the Jets.
“We played horrible but still found a way to win,” said SGTC Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach Jason Carpenter, after his team overcame an 11-point deficit early in the first quarter and a 10-point deficit in the second quarter to capture the six-point victory.
The Lady Jets lost to East Georgia in their opening game in January, 84 – 80. They came back and beat them 71 – 50 in Americus in early February and then managed to hang on for the win Saturday. The win virtually assures the Lady Jets of the first-place spot in the GCAA and a chance to host the NJCAA Region XVII end of the season playoff tournament March 13th and 14th as the highest place team.
The Lady Jets do still have five games remaining in the regular season with two games against Southern Crescent (0 – 8) and Andrew College (2 – 6) as well as a game against Albany Tech (6 – 3). A loss against Albany Tech would still give SGTC a one-game lead over East Georgia even if they win out in their upcoming games against Albany Tech, Southern Crescent, Andrew and Central Georgia Tech.
Despite the win, it was anything but easy. East Georgia jumped out to an 11 – 0 lead in the first quarter. The Lady Jets didn’t score a basket in the first five minutes. However, they came back and cut the deficit to 17 – 12 at the end of the first quarter.
East Georgia didn’t let up and were up 29 – 19 with 5:39 remaining in the first half. By half-time, the Lady Jets whittled away at that deficit and were only down 34 – 32. Both teams came out strong in the second half. The Lady Jets tied the game at 42 – 42 with 5:18 left in the third quarter. A basket by Jamiah Gregory with 4:59 on the clock gave the Lady Jets a 44 – 42 lead and they never relinquished that narrow advantage.
The Lady Jets were up by as many eight points in the fourth quarter but East Georgia rallied and cut that lead to two points (74 – 72) with 42.4 seconds remaining in the game. A basket by Stephie Salumu with 24.1 seconds and two free throws by Jamiah Gregory with 5.7 seconds remaining gave the Lady Jets the hard fought 78 – 72 victory.
Freshman guard Jamiah Gregory led her team in scoring with 22 points and she was followed in double-figures by sophomore Mio Sakano with 19 and Stephie Salumu with 16 points. Gregory had a double-double night with 11 rebounds to go with her 22 points.
Sophomore Enola Papin and freshman Cheyenne Preston both tossed in six points, Kaiya Carter had five and Maria Favero closed out the scoring with four points.
Following that narrow win, the Jets came out to face East Georgia but poor shooting and excessive turnovers saw them trailing 7 – 21 after 12 minutes. The Jets only mustered 19 points in the first 20 minutes and didn’t do much better on the night finishing with 49.
SGTC head coach Chris Ballauer said that the team just never really got into the game. “It looked like we had an eight-hour bus ride and came out flat,” said Ballauer, who had said his team needed to come up with four road wins to have a chance to finish first in the conference. The loss against East Georgia was going to be one of the easiest in the four games on the road.
The Jets will travel to Waycross on Wednesday to face the top ranked South Georgia State (9-1) team at 7 p.m., then to Andrew College (1 – 9) on Saturday before traveling to Albany Tech (7 – 2) on Saturday, March 1st. They also have to face Southern Crescent Tech (2-8), Georgia Highlands (6-5) and Gordon (4 – 6) at home.
Only one Jet managed to get into double-figures. Jordon Dickson led the way with 13 points. Jalexs Ewing and Aiden Fitzgerald came away with seven points and Hendrens Bartelus added six. Dwight Brown, Joshua Langefels, and Daryl Bod tossed in four each, followed by Matt Mbole with three and Jayden Simmons with one point.
The Jets only shot 30.9% from the field, 11.1% from the three-point line and hit 52% of their foul shots. They also had 24 turnovers and only 38 rebounds.
If the Jets can remain in fourth place or better, they will have the opportunity to host the quarter-final round of the NJCAA Region XVII tournament on Tuesday, March 11th. The highest ranked team in the GCAA will then host the semi and final rounds of the tournament on Friday, March 14th and Saturday, March 15th.
The Jets and Lady Jets are both on the road Wednesday, February 19th with the Jets traveling to Waycross to take on top-ranked South Georgia State while the Lady Jets travel to Griffin to face Southern Crescent. They will both be on the road again on Saturday, February 22 at Andrew College in Cuthbert before hosting Southern Crescent Tech in a double header, Wednesday, February 26th at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.