Jets to host NJCAA Region XVII tournament quarter-final game Tuesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.
After suffering a 63 – 60 loss to Gordon College in their final Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) regular season game, the SGTC Jets had to rely on a lucky coin toss to finish in fourth place in the GCAA and earn the right to host the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XVII quarter-final tournament game on Tuesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.
The narrow loss left the Jets in a four-way tie for fourth place in the GCAA regular season with Central Georgia Tech, Georgia Highlands, and East Georgia with identical 9 – 7 records. South Georgia State College finished in first place followed by Albany Tech and Gordon with identical 10- 6 records.
The four teams tied for fourth place were all 4 – 4 in head to head competition. So, the GCAA calculated how those teams did against the top-ranked South Georgia State College squad. South Georgia Tech, Central Georgia Tech and Georgia Highlands were 1 – 1 against South Georgia State College. East Georgia was 0 – 2 so that bumped them down to seventh place. SGTC, CGTC, and Georgia Highlands were all 1 – 1 against Albany Tech (which finished second). In the next tie-breaker, Central Georgia Tech was 0 – 2 against Gordon. So that left South Georgia Tech and Georgia Highlands in the running for fourth place. A successful coin toss allowed SGTC to edge out Georgia Highlands and host the quarter-final tournament game. It will be Tuesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hangar. South Georgia Tech and Georgia Highlands will battle for the right to advance.
The winners of the SGTC – Georgia Highlands, South Georgia State – Andrew College, Gordon – Central Georgia Tech and Albany Tech – East Georgia State College quarter-final matchups will advance to the semi-final rounds on Friday, March 14. The highest remaining seed will host the semi-finals and finals on Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 at to be determined times.
The Jets and Gordon battled for the lead throughout the first half of their last regular season game, and the Jets were able to come away with a 31 – 29 lead at the end of 20-minutes. There were seven different ties and one lead change in the first half.
In the second half, Gordon was able to erase that two-point lead and go up 60 – 53 with 4:22 left in the game. The Jets were able to come back and cut that deficit to two points (58 – 60) with 1:18 remaining on the clock. The Jets tried to overcome Gordon’s lead but a successful free throw with 11.5 seconds remaining gave the Highlands a 63 – 60 advantage. Aiden Fitzgerald got off a last second three-point desperation shot to try and tie the game but it fell short and Gordon captured the hard-fought win to finish the season in 3rd place.
Despite the loss, a little luck in the coin toss, gave the Jets the right to host a quarter-final tournament game. They will host Georgia Highlands on Tuesday, March 11th at 7:30 p.m. The Jets narrowly defeated Georgia Highlands by one point in their last meeting.
Freshman Jalexs Ewing and Hendrens Bartelus were the only two Jets to average in double-digits against Gordon. Ewing led the way with 17 points and Bartelus was next with 12 points. Aiden Fitzgerald came up with nine points and then Jordan Dickson and Dwight Brown both contributed six points each. Daryl Bod and Matt Mbole tossed in four points each and then Illich Yacaman closed out the scoring with two points.
The Jets closed out the regular season 12 – 18 and 9 – 7 in the conference. The second season starts Tuesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. Three games will allow one of the top eight teams to advance to the NJCAA National Tournament March 22 – 29 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS. None of the GCAA teams are currently ranked nationally. South Georgia State did receive an honorable mention in the last rankings.