CARTERSVILLE, Georgia -- Reigning national player of the week Jacky Jones scored 30 points and had 14 rebounds to lead the No. 9 ranked West Georgia Tech women's basketball team over Chattahoochee Tech Sunday afternoon, 86-77.
West Georgia Tech is now 7-3 overall with five wins against NJCAA Division I or Division II competition, and has won seven of its last eight. Chattahoochee Tech fell to 0-10.
Jones connected on 10 of 18 shots from the field and made 10 of 15 from the free throw line to record a career-high 30 points. With Sunday night's 14 rebounds, she has had at least ten rebounds or more in all ten games to start the season. That 10-game double-figure rebounding streak is the longest in school history.
"Obviously we had another big night from Jacky (Jones)," West Georgia Tech head coach Kenny Edwards said. "She plays with so much effort on both ends of the floor. I'm happy to see her get 30 points. She is the glue of this team, and we have a lot of players that contribute in various ways. But Jacky is our leader right now doing the little things that it takes to win games. She doesn't always get a big number in the scoring department but tonight she was a force offensively."
Iasia Early (Powder Springs, Ga.) scored 15 points and had six rebounds for the Golden Knights. Alexis Henderson added 13 points and JaNoah Daniels had 11 points to round out the double-figure scoring for West Georgia Tech. All three of the aforementioned players are freshmen.
"I'm very proud of our freshmen," Edwards said. "They hit some big shots, they had some big rebounds and they made some big free throws down the stretch. So I'm very proud of our freshmen. When we closed out the game we had four freshmen on the court with (sophomore) Jacky Jones. Iasia Early and JaNoah Daniels played big minutes and Alexis Henderson came off the bench and played big minutes for us. Kennedy Brooks and Brianna Cousins stepped up and played some big minutes and grabbed some big rebounds. They are the future of this program and they are making an impact for us this year early in their respective careers."
West Georgia Tech led by three at the end of the first quarter, 21-18. The second quarter went back-and-forth, with WGTC taking a 40-36 lead into intermission. The Black and Gold pulled away in the third quarter to lead by 11 points (63-52) going into the fourth before closing the game out in the final minutes.
"We didn't play our best basketball tonight, especially early in the game. But we overcame that with effort and the will to win the ballgame. We started out sluggish but give credit to Chattahoochee Tech. They played a great game and hit some big shots," Edwards said.
West Georgia Tech outrebounded the Golden Eagles by 15 (72-57) and forced 22 turnovers.
The Golden Knights return to action next Saturday with a home game against Summer Hill, at 2 p.m. in Carrollton. WGTC opens conference play the following Monday, hosting Georgia Northwestern at 5:30 p.m.
