From STAFF REPORTS

The top-ranked Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association’s (GCAA) South Georgia Technical College (SGTC) Lady Jets earned a 24th place spot in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I women’s basketball Top 25 poll, released January 24th. South Georgia Tech is the only Georgia women’s team included in the NJCAA Division I national rankings.
The Lady Jets are 7-0 in the GCAA and have posted a 19-3 overall record this season. One of those losses came at the hands of the 14th-ranked Pensacola State team. The Lady Jets dropped a 62-56 decision to Pensacola State in Florida on Nov. 27. The Lady Jets’ other two losses came at the hands of Florida Southwestern and Broward College.
“We just have to keep winning,” said SGTC Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach, James Frey. “This is the time of the year when every win counts. We are in a good spot right now, but we have to keep winning to move forward. Our goal is to win the conference, the NJCAA Region XVII tournament, the District J game and advance to the national tournament. We have to keep winning to accomplish those goals.”
Odessa, Tx. is the top-ranked team in the nation with a 16-0 record. Gulf Coast State is in second place with a 20 -1 record, followed by Chipola, Hutchinson, Ks; and New Mexico. Salt Lake took the sixth place spot and Seward County fell to seventh place. South Plains, Trinity Valley, and Northeastern Oklahoma A & M rounded out the top 10.
In addition to the Lady Jet’s 24th-place overall ranking in the women’s NJCAA Division I basketball team, the SGTC ladies also had several individual players spotlighted. La’Deja James, Camille Coleman, Desiree Corbin, Esther Adenike, and Kanna Suzuki are all among the top players in the nation in individual categories.
Coleman, a sophomore from South Bend, IN, was ranked fourth in the nation in three-point field goal percentage shooting. She is hitting 49 percent of her three-point shots and averaging 10.5 points per game. The national leader is shooting 58.9 percent.
James, a sophomore who has been the GCAA Player of the Week for four weeks, is currently listed as 11th in the nation in field goal percentage shooting at 62 percent. She is averaging 15 points per game. The national leader is hitting 72.4 percent of her shots but is only averaging 9.9 points per game.
James was also ranked 37th in the nation in total points scored this season with 316. She is also 32nd in free throw percentage shooting with an 82.6 performance. She earned a 28th place ranking in steals with an average of 3.0 per game.
Corbin, the sophomore transfer forward from Griffin, Ga., is ranked 33rd with a 56.5 percent field goal shooting percentage. Corbin is averaging 9.3 points per game. She is also ranked nationally in rebounding. She has a total of 220 rebounds this season, which is the fifth best in the country.
Corbin is also currently ranked 14th in the nation in rebounding with an average of 10.5. She is also listed as 11th in the nation in defensive rebounds per game with an average of 7.0.
Her teammate, Adenike, a freshman forward from Lagos, Nigera, is ranked 36th with an average of 9.1 rebounds per game. Adenike is also ranked 35th in offensive rebounding with a 3.9 average per game and ranked 16th in the nation in total rebounding with a total of 192.
Suzuki, a freshman from Japan, is listed as 24th in the nation in assists with an average of 4.8 per game.