SGTC Jets win Sparky Reeves Classic

The South Georgia Technical College Jets clinched two tough wins over Northeast Mississippi and Eastern Florida to win the Sparky Reeves Classic Basketball tournament in the James S. Peters gymnasium November 21 – 22. The Jets moved to 3 – 7 on the season.
This was the first time this season that the Jets had put together back-to-back wins. The narrow 75 – 69 win over the Northeast Mississippi Tigers combined with a 88 – 81 victory against a strong Eastern Florida Titans team Saturday allowed the Jets to win the tournament with a 2 – 0 record. Eastern Florida was 1 – 1 with a win over East Georgia State. NE Mississippi was also 1 – 1 after defeating East Georgia State and leaving the Bobcats winless on the weekend.
“I am very proud of the guys,” said SGTC Jets head coach Chris Ballauer after the two wins. “They have been working really hard and getting better every day and it finally showed up this weekend with two wins. Those were two really good teams that will win a lot of games. We get back to work on Monday and will keep working hard to get ready for our next game.”
The Jets will be off until Monday, December 1, when they travel to Tallahassee, FL to take on Tallahassee State College. Then they are on the road again to play in the East Georgia State Classic in Swainsboro on December 6 – 7. They open up with Brunswick Community College at 2 p.m. December 6th and then face Richard Bland College at 1 p.m. on December 7.
In the opening game with Northeast Mississippi, Jets sophomore guard Jalexs Ewing from Augusta, led the Jets in scoring with 30 points. He hit 15 of 19 free throws, was one of three from the three-point line and hit six of 11 from the field. He also had four rebounds.
Sophomore forward Dwight Brown from Conyers, GA was the only other Jet in double-digits and he had 14 points and led the team in rebounds with nine. Freshman Jarius Davis and freshman Clark Mastin were close behind with nine and eight points respectively. Guillaume Schoentgen came away with three points, Ilich Yacaman and Matt Mbole both added two points and Marcellus Myles sank a free throw to close out the scoring.
The largest lead of the night was when the Jets went up 74 – 66 in the second half. There were 10 lead changes and seven ties. Thirty-five of the Jets points came from the free-throw line. They were 35 of 49 while NE Mississippi was only 17 – 22.
After that exciting win, Jalexs Ewing came back and scored 28 points against Eastern Florida to lead the Jets to their second consecutive victory. He was eight of nine from the foul line, hit two of two from the three-point line and made seven baskets from the field. He also had five rebounds and three assists.
Two other Jets joined Ewing in double-digits. Freshman point guard Clark Mastin came away with 14 points, five assists and four rebounds. Freshman Guillaume Schoentgen followed with 10 points and three rebounds. Marc Ferdy posted nine points and led the team in rebounds with five. Dwight Brown added eight points, Matt Mbole and Jarius Davis both had six points and Marcellus Myles and Ilich Yacaman contributed four points each.
South Georgia Tech led by as many as 12 points in the second half. Eastern Florida led twice and tied the game once before the Jets secured the victory.