Offensive click leads to 90-61 win for Lady Jets

November 16, 2017

Leading scorer for the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets Ricka Jackson dribbles the ball past an Atlanta Metropolitan College defender during a recent 90-61 victory.

The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets offense clicked in a 90-61 routing of conference foes Atlanta Metropolitan College (3-3, 0-1) at home recently. The No. 13 nationally ranked Lady Jets improve to 4-0 overall (2-0) and remain tied for first in the Georgia Collegiate Athletics Association (GCAA).

The Lady Jets’ offense got off to a slow start, but began to click early in the first quarter – closing out the quarter with 29 points on the board to Atlanta Metro’s 16. The Lady Trailblazers bounced back to outscore SGTC in the second quarter 17-13, but the Lady Jets still entered the half up by a score of 42-33.

SGTC’s offense would go on to score 29 points in the third quarter and 19 in the fourth while the defense would hold the Lady Trailblazers to just 28 points in the second half – leading to a 90-61 victory in their second conference matchup of the season.

“We played pretty well in the first half at times – in the first quarter especially,” Lady Jets head coach James Frey said. “But I thought we made some shots in the second half and really got it going from the perimeter.”

Freshman small forward Ricka Jackson from Ewa Beach, Hawaii led the team in points, scoring 19 and going 8-for-14 overall (3-for-5 at the 3-point line). Alyssa Nieves, a freshman guard from Tampa, Fl, scored 18 points on the night – all from behind the 3-point line (6-for-9). Recent University of Minnesota commit Houlfat Mahouchiza scored 17 points, going 5-for-9 with one 3-pointer and hitting six of her seven free-throws. Bigue Sarr, a freshman center from Kaolack, Senegal, also scored double-digits – hitting five of her eight shots and tallying 10 points.

Also scoring for the Lady Jets were Esther Adenike and Fatou Pouye, who scored seven points apiece, Sceret Ethridge and Kayla Holmes, who scored four points apiece, and Aubrey Maulden and Cedeja James who rounded out the team with two points each.

But while the offense clicked, Frey said one of the main problems for the team is turnovers.

“We turned the ball over three of four times in the first three minutes, and that’s something we’ve been really focusing on in practice,” he said. “We still ended up with 18 turnovers tonight but that’s seven or eight below our average. But tonight I think everybody played pretty well and it was a step in the right direction for sure.”

The Lady Jets will head to Tampa, FL next to face both St. Petersburg College and Hillsborough Community College on Nov. 18 and 19. They’ll travel to Swainsboro, GA to play another conference game against East Georgia State College on Nov. 22 before coming back home to host the Lady Jets Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 25 and 26 – where they’ll play Motlow State and Wallace State.