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From Staff Reports

AMERICUS – The South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets closed out the regular season with the top ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s (NJCAA) Division I women’s basketball poll. The Lady Jets had been ranked in the top 10 in the nation during all 15 weeks of the regular season poll and have been ranked number one for the past seven weeks.

The top ranked Lady Jets defeated the 23^rd ranked East Georgia State College Lady Bobcats in their final regular season game, 76 – 62 to clinch the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) conference title with a perfect 15 – 0 record. The Lady Jets are currently 29 – 1 with their only loss coming in the opening game of the season in a 76 – 61 decision to perennial power Gulf Coast.

The top five spots in the NJCAA Division I end of the season poll did not change.  South Georgia Tech remained in the top spot with all 10 first place votes.  Eastern Florida State (28 – 1) stayed in the number two spot followed by Blinn (27 – 1), Southern Idaho (27 – 2), and Trinity Valley (26 – 2).

Northwest Florida State (23 – 3) moved into the sixth position. Collin (27 – 1), Jones (22 – 3), were sixth, seventh, and eighth. Gulf Coast State (24 – 3) dropped to ninth followed by Dodge City (27 – 2) in tenth. McLennan (25 – 3), Wabash Valley (27 – 1) Shelton State (26 – 3), Eastern Arizona (27 – 1) and Casper (26 – 3) rounded out the top 15 spots.

In addition to maintaining the 1^st place ranking in the national poll, the SGTC Lady Jets also had five players recognized for their individual efforts on the court.   The five Lady Jets featured in the national rankings include: sophomore center Fanta Gassama, sophomore Loes Rozing, sophomore Alexia Dizeko, sophomore Luana Leite and freshman Veronika Palfi.

Gassama, 6’ 1” center from Mataro, Spain, is currently listed as 3^rd in the country in defensive rebounds with 9.0 per game and 5^th in rebounds per game with a 13.2 average over 25 games.  She is also listed in 9^th place in total rebounds with 329 and ranked 19^th in offensive rebounds averaging 4.1.

Lady Jets sophomore guard Alexia Dizeko, 5’ 11” from Sion, Switzerland, is 33^rd in the nation in total points scored with 461.  She was also listed as 42^nd in field goal percentage shooting making 54.5 percent of her attempts from the floor.   She is currently hitting 78.7 percent of her attempts from the foul line to be ranked 50^th in the nation in that category.

Sophomore guard Luana Leite, 5’ 7” from Sao Paolo, Brazil, was ranked in three-point percentage shooting.  Leite is making 45.3% of her attempts and is 8^th in the nation.  She is also ranked 44^th in the nation in steals averaging 2.7 per outing. Freshman Veronika Palfi was ranked 13^th in three-point percentage shooting hitting 42.1 percent of her attempts.

Sophomore point guard Loes Rozing, 5’ 10” from Heiloo, Netherlands is the other Lady Jet ranked and she is currently 23^rd in assists per game averaging 4.9.

The Lady Jets will be hosting the GCAA end of the season tournament semi-finals and finals, Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4. The Lady Jets will play the winner of the Albany Tech/Central Georgia Tech game on Friday at 6 p.m. in the James S. Peters Gymnasium. East Georgia State will take on the winner of the Georgia Highlands/Andrew game at 8 p.m. Friday. The winners of those two games will meet in the finals on Saturday at 2 p.m. for the right to advance to the Southeast District Championship and the National Tournament.