SGTC Lady Jets defeat East Georgia 84 – 54
The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets captured their 17th win of the season in an 84 – 54 decision over the East Georgia State College Bobcats in Americus Tuesday night. The Lady Jets are ranked eighth in the NJCAA Division I women’s basketball poll but are in second place in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association behind Georgia Highlands. SGTC is currently 17 – 3 overall and 11 – 2 in the GCAA.
“I think East Georgia is a very talented team and a very well coached team. Coach Howard has had them playing at a high level all year. Their only losses were to Georgia Highlands College and Northwest Florida, both nationally ranked,” said SGTC Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey. “I think we were able to get some early momentum with our defensive pressure and that translated into some fast break baskets for us.
“It was important for us to get off to a fast start and I think we did that. We shot the ball extremely well in the first half and when we are shooting it well from the perimeter, we are pretty tough,” added Frey. The Lady Jets hit 52% of their attempts from the field and 30% of their three-point attempts. They were also 80% effective from the foul line.
The Lady Jets jumped out to 28 – 13 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched that to a 52 – 24 lead by the end of the first half. East Georgia came out in the third quarter and outscored South Georgia Tech 17 – 16 before the Lady Jets took charge again in the fourth quarter to secure the 84 – 54 conference win over the third seeded East Georgia State College Lady Bobcats.
Sophomore center Flore Ngasamputu led the Lady Jets in scoring with 16 points. The 6’ 2” center from Kinshasa, DRC, also led the team in rebounds with 11 for a double-double night. She was paced by sophomore guard Veronica Charles and sophomore forward Hope Butera who both tossed in 13 points. Charles also pulled down six rebounds, had two assists and three steals. Butera had six rebounds, four assists and one steal on the night.
Freshman Abby Solway came off the bench to score nine points, sophomore Imani McNeal came away with seven points and then Maikya Simmons, six points, Jaidyn Trevino and Sarah Lwambo both had five, and Tena Ikidi and Moe Shida four each. Niya McGuire closed out the scoring with two points.
“I have been happy with the development of our post players this past week. They’ve played pretty good two games in a row and have been really aggressive. I think that’s a carryover from practice. We have had some incredibly intense practices since last Thursday and I think challenging one another in practice is paying off,” said Coach Frey.
The Lady Jets will travel to Swainsboro for a rematch with East Georgia on Thursday, March 18th at 5:30. “East Georgia will be really good at home Thursday. That game definitely worries me,” revealed Frey. “They always play well there and always play us tough. I told our team after the game, enjoy this one for about five hours and then flush it. If we don’t take care of business on Thursday, this one means very little. This team has been very good about moving on to the next game so we’ll get back after it in practice.”
East Georgia is currently in third place in the GCAA behind Georgia Highlands and South Georgia Tech. They are 7 – 4 in the Conference and 11 – 5 overall. They have two more games against South Georgia Tech and two games against Albany Tech during the regular season.
The NJCAA Region XVII end of the season tournament will begin on Tuesday, March 30th. The first and second place teams will receive a bye and the third and fourth place teams will host the fifth and sixth ranked teams. The semi-finals and finals will be played on Friday, April 2nd and Saturday, April 3rd at Georgia Highlands in Rome, GA.
The Lady Jets will close out the regular season on Saturday, March 20th at 1 p.m. in the Hangar against East Georgia as part of SGTC’s Sophomore Day recognition. The college will recognize the Jets and Lady Jets sophomores around 3 p.m. prior to the start of the Jets men’s game against Gordon College at 4 p.m.