Lady Jets open Holiday Classic with win over St. Petersburg

The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets opened the Lady Jets Holiday Classic basketball tournament with an impressive come-from behind 80 – 74 victory over the St. Petersburg College Lady Titans to move to 8 – 4 on the season. St. Petersburg fell to 1 – 14.
Poor shooting from the free-throw line and the three-point line caused the Lady Jets to trail 38 – 35 at the end of the first half. The SGTC Lady Jets were 0 – 9 from the three-point line after 20-minutes and were only one of seven from the foul line. St. Petersburg was six of eight from the three-point line and four of eight in free throws at the end of the half.
The Lady Jets continued to trail 54 – 53 at the end of three quarters but with 2:16 remaining in the game, the Lady Jets came back from a 73 – 66 deficit to take the 80 – 74 victory. That 13-point swing occurred after the Lady Jets became aggressive on defense with a full-court press that forced the Lady Titans to turn the ball over. The Lady Jets were able to capitalize on the turnovers and turn them into quick baskets. The Lady Titans had a total of 22 turnovers, 12 of which were in the second half.
Freshman guard Jamiah Gregory from Marietta, GA and Stephie Salumu, a freshman guard from Sint-Niklaas, Belgium led the Lady Jets in scoring with 18 and 17 points each. All 17 of Stephie Salumu’s points came in the second half. Gregory had 12 points in the first half and six points in the second half. Salumu led SGTC in rebounds with 11. She also had three assists and two blocked shots.
Three other Lady Jets reached double-digits in that game. Sophomore guard Mio Sakano tossed in 11 points and then freshmen guard Kaiya Carter from Houston, Texas and sophomore guard Enola Papin from France both came away with 10 points.
Freshman Mariia Ignatchenko posted nine points and 10 rebounds on the night and then Cheyenne Preston and Hayda Toro closed out the scoring with three and two points respectively.
Nikki Stanic and Heavan Sanders led St. Petersburg in scoring with 13 points each.
A total of eight teams are participating in the Lady Jets Holiday Classic including three nationally ranked teams. Shelton State is currently ranked 9th in the country and Chipola is ranked 11th. Eastern Florida is also ranked at 23rd in the nation.
The other teams participating included SGTC and St. Petersburg, Chattanooga State, Daytona State and Northeast Mississippi. The games will continue through Tuesday, December 31st.