Lady Chargers win GCAA Championship; Turn Attention to District Game

Saturday's championship game featured two familiar teams as Georgia Highlands and South Georgia Tech once again faced each other for the GCAA title. This time it was the Lady Chargers day as they defeated the Lady Jets 67-56 capturing the GCAA title.

GHC hosts Spartanburg Methodist for the Southeast District title this Saturday at 1pm. The Lady Chargers have defeated the Lady Pioneers twice during this year's regular season matchups. With a victory then they can turn their full attention on the NJCAA National Tournament and Lubbock TX.

The Lady Chargers came into the tournament as the number one seed going undefeated in conference play and the Lady Jets three conference losses came at the hands of GHC. In the first semifinal GHC ended the season for East Georgia Tech 86-59 moving the Lady Chargers to the title game. The second game the Lady Jets eliminated the Lady Tigers of Andrew College 67-48 setting up the title game with two teams having more than 25 plus wins during the season.

Championship Saturday started out with GHC shooting lights out from behind the three point line hitting their first seven shots  and at one point had the largest lead of the game with 21 points. The first quarter ended with the 27-10 lead. SGTC turned things around in quarter two holding the Chargers to 11 points while posting 21 points cutting the lead to 4 only to have GHC sink another 3-pointer to go into half with a 38-31 lead.

The third quarter was another explosion of three's by the Lady Chargers as they outscored the Lady Jets by a 17-9 margin and increasing the lead back to fifteen, 55-40, heading into the last quarter. SGTC could only cut the deficit by four and GHC finished with a 67-56 championship win.

GHC's O'Mariyah Tucker led all scorers with 20 points, GCAA Player of the Year Jashanti Simmons added 17, and Alexandra Sishkina had 13. Luana Leite, Alexia Dizeko and Fanta Gassam contributed 12 points apiece for the Jets.  Runner-up South Georgia Tech will be looking for an at-large bid to the national tournament, and deservedly so, with a 26-6 season record and four of their six loses coming at the expense of the third ranked Chargers.

Next step for the Lady Chargers is familiar territory as they will face Spartanburg Methodist for the third straight time this year and hosting the Southeast District Championship.   This year GHC soundly defeated SMC twice  97-61 and 96-56. SMC comes into Saturday's game with a 17-6 overall record.  A win and GHC will move to a 29-2 record and set their sights on the national tournament.