Lady Jets defeat Andrew College and earn right to host NJCAA Region XVII tournament

March 10, 2025
Mio Sakano (30) led the Lady Jets to the 99 – 43 win over Andrew College in the last regular season game of the year. The Lady Jets will host the NJCAA Region XVII tournament beginning Thursday, March 13 at 6 p.m.
Mio Sakano (30) led the Lady Jets to the 99 – 43 win over Andrew College in the last regular season game of the year. The Lady Jets will host the NJCAA Region XVII tournament beginning Thursday, March 13 at 6 p.m.

The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets finished the 2024-2025 regular season with a rousing 99 – 43 win over Andrew College this weekend to clinch first place in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Division 1 women’s basketball regular season and earn the right to host the NJCAA Region XVII tournament. The Lady Jets are 23 – 6 overall and 14 – 1 in the GCAA.
As the top-seeded team, the SGTC Lady Jets earned a bye in the quarterfinal round which begins tonight (Monday, March 11th). Second place Albany Tech also received a bye. Third-seeded East Georgia will host Southern Crescent at 5:30 p.m. in one of the quarter-final games while Central Georgia Tech will host Andrew College at 5:30 p.m. in the other match-up.
The winners of those games will advance to the semi-final round which begins on Thursday, March 13 at South Georgia Technical College in Americus. SGTC will play the winner of the Central Georgia Tech – Andrew College game at 6 p.m. followed by the match-up between Albany Tech and the winner of the East Georgia – Southern Crescent Tech game at 8 p.m. The winners of those games will advance to the finals at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 14 in the Hangar at SGTC.
The overall winner of the NJCAA Region XVII tournament will advance to the NJCAA National Tournament in Casper Wyoming, March 23 – April 1st. The Lady Jets have represented Region 17 in the national tournament 10 times in their 20-year tenure in the NJCAA. SGTC’s first Lady Jets head coach Brandon Harrell took the Lady Jets to the nationals for the first time in 2010 and then second Lady Jets head coach James Frey took the Lady Jets to the national tournament nine times from 2014 to 2023. He only failed to qualify twice in his 11-year reign as head coach at SGTC.
South Georgia Tech had a three-game lead over their next closest competition in the GCAA standings. But Coach Carpenter was determined to end the regular season on a winning note. The Lady Jets jumped out to a 25 – 6 lead over Andrew College at the end of the first quarter. Andrew rallied in the second quarter to outscore the Lady Jets 16 – 13 but the Lady Jets were still up 41 – 19 going into the half. The Lady Jets continued to pile on points in the second half to coast to the 56-point victory.
Four Lady Jets came away with double-digits in that game. They were led by sophomore guard Mio Sakano with 21 points. Kaiya Carter, a freshman guard from Houston, Texas, was the next leading scorer with 20 points. Freshman Jamiah Gregory and sophomore Enola Papin closed out the double-digit scoring with 14 points each.
Duilly Silver tossed in eight points, Mariia Ignatchenko followed with seven points and nine rebounds, Maria Favero had six points, and Stephie Salumu contributed five points. Cheyenne Preston walked away with four points. Favero, Salumu, and Papin all pulled down eight rebounds each.