Lady Jets remain in 16th spot in NJCAA national poll for 4th straight week

   Six colleges were shuffled around in the top 15 spots within the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) women’s basketball national rankings this week but the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets remained in the 16^th position for the fourth consecutive week.

    The Lady Jets are 23 – 2 overall and 13 – 0 in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association, but they can’t seem to get any higher than 16^th nationally.  The Lady Jets were ranked 24^th in the pre-season national poll, then moved up three spots into 21^st place prior to the Thanksgiving break.  They climbed to 19^th place, and then moved up another two spots into 17^th before climbing into the 16^th position at the end of the year.  They fell to 17^th in the first poll of 2020 but climbed back into 16^th place and have remained there for the past four weeks.  

  South Plains, Texas; Trinity Valley, TX; Western Nebraska, and Gulf Coast State, FL; all held on to their top four spots respectively in the national poll this week, but between the 5^th and 11^th spots, it was a fruit basket turnover.  Shelton State, AL; moved up to 5^th place overall, Hutchinson, KS; is now 6^th; Northwest Florida State is ranked seventh; New Mexico fell to 8^th, Chipola remained ninth; Jones, MS: went to 10^th and Tyler, TX dropped to 11^th.  Seward County, KS; Central Arizona, Florida SouthWestern State and Wabash Valley remained in the 12^th – 15^th positions this week ahead of South Georgia Technical College.

   “All we can do is keep winning and hope that we have the opportunity to move up.  If we don’t move up then we need to make it to the national tournament and show them what kind of team we are,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey.  “If we get to the national tournament again this year, we will have to play one or more of the top 25 teams, so the best thing we can do is to keep working and keep getting better and let the rest take care of itself.”

    Four Lady Jets are helping to keep their team in the national rankings by standing out based on their individual play on the court.  Freshman center Femme Sikuzani from the Congo is currently listed as the sixth leading rebounder in the nation.  She has a total of 285 rebounds this season in her 25 games.

   Sikuzani from Goma, DRC, is ranked in six different categories.  The 6’ 5” center is averaging a total of 11.4 rebounds per game which is currently 12^th overall in the nation. 

   She is currently listed as 10^th in the nation in offensive rebounds with an average of 5 per game and 30^th in the nation in defensive rebounds with 6.4 per outing.  And she is currently ranked 29^th overall in field goal percentage shooting with a 56.6 percent success rate on her shots. She also moved up to 42^nd place this week in blocks per game with a 1.6 average.

    Three other members of the Lady Jets garnered national attention for their aggressive offensive and defensive skills.   Sophomore transfer Shamari Tyson, who transferred in from Southeastern Illinois College, this season is in 19^th place in the nation in assists per game with an average of 5.4.  She is also listed as 22^nd in the nation in three-point shooting with a 42.6 success rate and ranked 38^th in steals with an average of 2.9 per game.

    Sophomore Yasriyyah Wazeerund-Din climbed moved up to 11^th from 15^th in the nation in steals with an average of 3.5 per game and she moved up to 9^th in the nation in three-point percentage shooting.  She is hitting 45 percent of her shots from the three-point territory.

    Sophomore Anna McKendree was the fourth Lady Jet to earn recognition.  She was also listed in two different NJCAA individual stats this week.  She is ranked 23^rd in the nation in steals with an average of 3.2 per game and she was also listed as 25^th in three-point percentage shooting.  She has hit 42.5 percent of her three-point attempts this season.

The Lady Jets and the Jets will play at home on Saturday, February 8^th when they host Andrew College at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. in the Hangar on the Americus campus.  This is the SGTC Sophomore/Alumni Day celebration and the public is encouraged to attend.  An Alumni Game will kick off the day at 10 a.m., the Chamber of Commerce will grill out hot dogs and hamburgers and there will be free t-shirts given out while supplies last.