Jets, Lady Jets sweep Albany Tech for Homecoming Celebration
The South Georgia Technical College Jets and Lady Jets swept the Albany Technical College Titans and Lady Titans as part of the SGTC Homecoming, Alumni, and Sophomore Day Celebration in the James S. Peters gymnasium Saturday.
The Lady Jets opened with an 80 – 54 Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) victory over the Lady Titans and then the Jets roared to an 89 – 57 win over the Albany Tech Titans. The Lady Jets are the GCAA regular season champions with a 13 – 1 conference record and an 18 – 11 overall record. They are in first place ahead of Central Georgia Tech (8 – 4), Albany Tech (9 – 5), Andrew College (5 – 9), East Georgia (3 – 10), and Southern Crescent Tech (2 – 11).
The Jets (9 – 5, 13 – 15) moved into third place in the GCAA with the win over Albany Tech and even with two games left in the regular season should host an NJCAA Region XVII Tournament game in the Hangar on Tuesday, March 10th at 7 p.m.
SGTC Jet Ilich Yacaman (23) tossed in 18 points to lead the Jets to an impressive win over Albany Tech.
Central Georgia Tech (13 – 1) is currently in first place followed by South Georgia State College (12 – 3). The Jets are third followed by Gordon College and East Georgia who are tied for fourth place with identical 7 – 7 record. Albany Tech dropped to sixth place with a 7 – 8 record and they are followed by Georgia Highlands (6 – 8), Andrew (2 – 12) and Southern Crescent Tech (1 – 13).
In the opening part of the double-header, the Lady Jets had to overcome a nine-point deficit in the first quarter to battle back to a 13 – 17 deficit at the end of the first 10-minutes of play. Albany Tech’s Lady Titans held on to the lead until about mid-way through the second quarter when the Lady Jets tied the game and then slowly began to ease ahead. The Lady Jets had a narrow 34 – 28 half-time lead.
A strong second half by the Lady Jets allowed them to capture the 80 – 54 decision. Three Lady Jets were in double digits on the night. Freshman guard Ja’Niya Broome led the way with 26 points and eight rebounds.
She was followed by sophomore guard Taja Bennett with 24 points and 15 rebounds on the day. Sophomore Jada Jones was the other Lady Jet in double digits and she had 12 points. Jaidyn Elam tossed in eight points, Candice Ganga had six, and Sephore Benth came away with four points and 12 rebounds.
Albany Tech’s Nia Anderson and Cloe Evans were the leading scorers for the Lady Titans with 16 and 15 points respectively.
After that impressive win, the Jets roars out to an 89 – 57 victory over the Titans. There were only two lead changes and one tie during that 40-minute contest. The Jets were up 38 – 25 at the half and scored 51 points compared to Albany Tech’s 32 in the second half to capture the 89 – 57 decision.
Sophomore Ilich Yacaman scored 18 points to lead the Jets in scoring. Then Matt Mbole and Jalexs Ewing tossed in 14 points each to close out the double-digit scoring. Mbole had a double-double night with his 14 points and 15 rebounds.
Marcellus Myles added nine points, Jeremy Nixon scored eight, Jarius Davis and Dwight Browth both tossed in five points, Noa Istrefi and Guillaume Schoentgen added four each and Ralfs Iesalnieks and Frankie Raines walked away with three points. Clark Mastin closed out the scoring with two points.
Albany Tech’s Brenna Wansley was the leading scorer for the Titans with 29 points.
The SGTC Lady Jets will travel to Cuthbert to face Andrew College on Tuesday, March 4 at 5 p.m. for their last regular season contest. They will play at home in the NJCAA Region XVII Tournament semi-final round on Thursday, March 12 at 6 p.m. The tournament will begin on March 9th. South Georgia Tech and Central Georgia Tech will receive bye’s since they are currently ranked first and second in the GCAA.
The third-place team, Albany Tech (9 – 5) will play the last place team Southern Crescent (2 – 11) in the quarterfilands and Andrew College (5 – 9) will host East Georgia (3 – 10) in that round. The winners will advance to the semi-finals at SGTC with games at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
In the men’s GCAA regular season games remaining, the Jets will travel to Georgia Highlands in Rome on Wednesday, March 4th and then to Barnesville, GA to take on Gordon State College on Saturday at 3 p.m. The NJCAA Region XVII men’s tournament will begin Tuesday, March 10th with the first four teams hosting games. The Semi-Final and Finals rounds will be held at the highest seeded team’s home gym on Friday, March 13th and Saturday, March 14th.