The Chattahoochee Tech Golden Eagles will hit the road to Waycross this Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. first-round GCAA tournament game against South Georgia State. CTC and the Hawks both finished the regular season with 21-9 overall and 9-7 conference records, but SGSC earned the No. 4 seed and CTC the No. 5 seed due to a tiebreaker.
The teams have played two tight games this year. South Georgia won 79-74 in a CTC home game at Reinhardt University in January that was neck-and-neck until the final minute. Chatt Tech evened the series with a 114-111 win in triple overtime on Feb. 18 in Waycross.
Freshman guard Jamion Simpson of Chatt Tech paced the Golden Eagles with 19 points in the first game, and sophomore small forward Keith Ray scored 21 in the second game on 6-of-10 shooting, 4-of-8 from three. Reserve guard Philip Garner was a big X-factor in both games, scoring 17 points in each contest for his highest outputs of the conference season. South Georgia star Zaquavian Smith scored 27 and 28 points in those games, respectively.
In its win, Chatt Tech shot 37-of-76 from the floor for 49 percent and shot above its season average at the free-throw line in both games, going 16-of-23 (70 pct) in Game 1 and 25-of-35 (71 pct) in Game 2. The Golden Eagles lost the turnover battles in each, 20-17 and 13-9, so CTC will be looking to take care of the ball on Tuesday night.
Simpson enters the conference tournament as the team's leading scorer and second-leading scorer in the conference at 17.6 points per game, behind SGSC's Smith at 19.6. Ray and sophomore guard Malik Jordan are ninth and 10th in GCAA scoring at 14.2 and 14 points per game, respectively.
Jalen Mitchell (9.3 ppg, 53.7 pct FG) and Nkem Ojeh (9 ppg, 53.8 pct FG) are two other big contributors for the team. Ojeh's 3.5 blocks per game rank second nationally in NJCAA Division I and his 7.6 rebounds per game are 10th in the conference. Garner's 7.6 points per game are sixth on the team.
Simpson's 2.7 steals are second in the GCAA and Jordan's 2.4 are fourth, while sophomore starter Ben Drake is 11th in rebounding with 7.5 boards a game. Jeremiah Shaw (4.3 ppg) and Tony Pruitt (3.6 ppg) are key role players for the Golden Eagles.
Chattahoochee Tech started its conference season 3-5 before ripping off five straight wins to get to 8-5. CTC is coming off a tough overtime loss, 82-81, to Gordon State in the final regular-season game as the Highlanders hit a three at the buzzer.
In other Tuesday action, No. 3 seed Central Georgia Tech meets No. 6 Albany Tech; No. 2 Gordon State meets No. 7 South Georgia Tech; and No. 1 Georgia Highlands (ranked No. 6 NJCAA Division I) meets the winner of No. 8 East Georgia State and No. 9 Atlanta Metro, to be played Monday night at Georgia Highlands. The winners of Tuesday's games will play on Friday, March 10 in the semifinals at the site of the highest remaining seed. The championship game will be held Saturday, March 11 at the same site.
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