Marianna, FL- The South Georgia Technical College Jets suffered back to back losses in the Chipola Classic Basketball Tournament in Marianna, FL over the weekend. They dropped a 76 – 65 loss to the third rank Chipola Indians on Friday and then lost to Tallahassee State College 77 – 53 on Saturday.
In the opening game against Chipola, the Jets were only down 36 – 34 at the end of the first half but “then we had about a three-minute bad stretch in the second half and you can’t beat good teams like that,” said Jets head coach Chris Ballauer. Then the Jets just came out flat in the match-up with Tallahassee State College and lost by 24 points.
Kyle Smith, a sophomore guard from Hoboken, NJ, was the leading scorer for the Jets in the match-up with Chipola with 32 points. He was 10 of 16 from the floor and three of three from the three-point line. He also was nine of nine from the foul line. He also tied for the leading rebounder with six.
Jamian Jackson, a sophomore guard from Jacksonville, FL, was the only other Jet in double-figures in that game with 10 points. Sophomore guard Frankie Raines from Oglethorpe, GA, was the next leading scorer with eight points. He was three of five from the field and two of three from the three-point line.
Closing out the scoring for the Jets were: Amir Elchelberger, a sophomore wing from Atlanta, GA, who had seven points, Tatian Muambu, a freshman forward from Luanda, Angola, with six points and Ralfs Iesalnieks, a sophomore guard from Livani, Latvia with two points. Tatian Muambu was also tied with Kyle Smith as the top rebounder with six rebounds in that game.
In the second game, Tallahassee State jumped out to a 42 – 26 lead at the end of the first half and outscored the Jets 35 – 27 in the second half to take the 77 – 53 victory.
Jamian Jackson was the leading scorer for the Jets in that game and he was the only one in double-digits with 18 points. He was six of 12 from the floor, three of four from the three-point line and three of six from the foul line. He also tied as the leading rebounder with four.
Mazin Bakri, a freshman guard from Melbourne, Australia, came away with nine points and Cameron Jackson, a freshman wing from Atlanta, Georgia added eight points. Kyle Smith was held to six points and then Tanner Pitts, a freshman guard from Douglasville, GA tossed in four points. Boshan Onwuta, a freshman forward from Anambra State, Nigeria, had three points from the foul line and then Frankie Raines and Ami Eichelberger both walked away with two points. Malueth Deng Mabior, a freshman forward from Kacuat, South Sudan, closed out the scoring with one point.
The Jets will be looking for their first victory this weekend when they travel to Melbourne, FL to play in the Eastern Florida Classic. They will take on Eastern Flirday State at 5 p.m. on November 6th and Indian River State on November 7th. They travel to Tuscaloosa, AL, to face Shelton State on November 11th before returning home for the Sparky Reeves Classic on November 20th and 21st. They take on Eastern Florida State at 7:30 p.m. on November 20th and Florida Southwestern State on November 21 at 3 p.m.