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From Staff Reports

 

AMERICUS – South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets head coach James Frey was selected as the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Division 1 women’s basketball Coach of the Year for 2022 – 2023 and sophomore forward Alexia Dizeko earned the GCAA Player of the Year honors.  The Lady Jets ended the 2022 -2023 regular season as the top ranked National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division 1 women’s team.

Sophomore guard Luana Leite was named as the GCAA Defensive Player of the Year.  Dizeko and sophomore Fanta Gassama were listed as first team GCAA players and Luana Leite was a second team All-GCAA player.

This was the seventh time in 11 years that SGTC Lady Jets head coach James Frey had earned the GCAA Coach of the Year honors.  The Lady Jets finished the regular season with an unbeaten 15 – 0 conference record and 29 – 1 overall record.  They defeated Albany Tech and East Georgia State College in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XVII Tournament to move to 31 – 1.  Their only loss this season was to nationally ranked Gulf Coast in their opening game of the season.

Frey has put together 300 wins as a head coach at SGTC and his current record is now 304 – 60 overall.  He has guided the Lady Jets to the NJCAA national tournament in nine of the 11 years he has served as head coach.  This season will be the seventh straight year that the Lady Jets have earned the right to participate in the national tournament and the 10th overall since the program began in 2004.

Frey and the Lady Jets have been in the number one spot in the NJCAA Division I National Rankings for the past seven weeks and held on to the top spot in the final NJCAA regular season poll.  They have put together 31 consecutive wins.  This is the first time South Georgia Technical College has had a team ranked number one in men’s or women’s sports.  The Lady Jets are hoping to maintain that top ranking going into the NJCAA National Tournament March 22^nd – 27^th in Lubbock, Texas.

This was the third time at SGTC that Frey guided the Lady Jets to an undefeated conference record.  The Lady Jets were 18 – 0 in 2018 -2019, 17 – 0 in 2019 – 2020, and 15 – 0 in the 2022 – 2023.  Frey is only the second coach in the 19-year history of the women’s program at SGTC.  Brandon Harrell, current women’s basketball coach at Georgia Highlands began the program in 2004 – 2005.  He left to start the program at Georgia Highlands in 2012.

The Lady Jets are averaging 72.6 points per game this season behind the outstanding play of Alexia Dizeko, Luana Leite, and Fanta Gassama and the other 10 members of the top-ranked Lady Jets.

 

Alexia Dizeko was the GCAA Freshman of the Year and first team All-GCAA player last season.  She was also an NJCAA and WBCA second team All-American her first season at SGTC.  This season, she earned the Player of the Year honors.

The 5’ 11” forward from Sion, Switzerland, is averaging 16.6 points per game.  She is hitting 54.5% of her attempted shots from the field and 79.6 percent of her free throw shots.  She is also a 32.1% shooter from the three-point line.

Sophomore Luana Leite, 5’ 7” from Sao Paola, Brazil, earned the GCAA Defensive Player of the Year award.  She also averages 11.3 points per game.  Fanta Gassama was the other SGTC Player recognized. The 6’ 1” center from Mataro, Spain, is the second leading scorer for the Lady Jets with 13.2 points per game.  She is also the leading rebounder pulling down an average of 13.4 each game.

 

Other players recognized by the GCAA included:  Co-Freshmen of the Year, D’Myra Griffin of East Georgia State College and Jordan Eafford of Andrew College.  Torrion Starks of East Georgia, Mariah Spain of Albany Tech and Cheyenne Holloman of Georgia Highlands joined SGTC’s Dizeko and Gassama on the GCAA first team.  SGTC’s Luana Leite, East Georgia Zuriyah Davis, Andrew’s Ja’mya Johnson, Albany Tech’s Dsais Wyatt and Georgia Highland’s Madiala Disbate were the second team All-GCAA players.