OXFORD, Georgia – The West Georgia Tech men’s
basketball team won its third-consecutive Georgia Collegiate
Athletic Association – Region 17 Division III Men’s
Basketball Tournament Championship, 64-56 over Oxford College of
Emory University Sunday afternoon in Oxford, Ga.
West Georgia Tech swept both championships on Sunday, with the
women winning earlier in the day, 98-46 over Georgia
Northwestern.
Winning in the postseason has become an old habit for head
coach Niki Okolovitch and the Golden Knights men’s
team.
West Georgia Tech has now won three-straight Region 17
Tournament titles despite never winning the regular season
championship outright.
All three have come at the expense of the Oxford College
Eagles with West Georgia Tech matching up with them in the last
three championship games. The Golden Knights won last year’s
championship game tilt 65-46. Two of those three wins came on
Oxford’s home court.
West Georgia Tech had a 13 point lead with 8:34 to
play but Oxford went on a 13-2 run to get to within two, 56-54,
with 3:01 remaining. The Golden Knights then scored on
two-straight possessions to stretch the lead back out to six, 60-54
with 1:01 to play. Oxford would get no closer than
that.
“A win like this will help us get ready for what we will
face up in North Carolina next week,” Okolovitch said.
“We stepped up and made a couple of big plays at the end of
the game. We faced some adversity and I thought we stepped up and
played with poise, especially on the defensive end. That’s
something we have worked hard on, and today we showed that we can
win a big game in a big environment.
Jalen Bracey led West Georgia Tech with 17 points. Codi Linton
had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Devante Orebeau
(13 points) and Orlandis Hill round out the double-figure scoring
for the Golden Knights.
West Georgia Tech held Oxford to just 32.3-percent shooting
from the field (20-of-62). WGTC shot 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from
the field, and 45.5 percent (5-of-11) from three-point range.
WGTC dominated the glass, outrebounding the Eagles 50-36.
West Georgia Tech and Oxford will both move on to the next
round of the postseason and compete in the four-team NJCAA D-III
Men’s Basketball District 7 Semifinals next weekend in
Dobson, N.C.
WGTC and Oxford will represent Region 17 and will be joined by
the champions of Region 10 and Region 20. The winner of next
weekend’s tournament will secure one of the eight spots in
the NJCAA D-III Men’s Basketball Elite 8 National
Championship Tournament in upstate New York.
West Georgia Tech lost in the first round of the District 7
tournament two years ago before making the championship game last
year, losing to Caldwell Tech
