West Georgia Tecnical College tops Emmanuel

LAGRANGE, Ga. – It was a total team effort, with five players scoring in double-figures to lead the West Georgia Tech men over the junior varsity team from Emmanuel College 79-62.

WGTC has won two of its last three games to improve its record to 2-5 on the season.

West Georgia Tech trailed only once in the contest, at 20-18 with 5:10 left in the first half. From that point, the Golden Knights closed the half on a 13-4 run to take a 31-24 lead into the locker room.

Emmanuel closed to within one at 35-34 four minutes deep into the second half, but West Georgia Tech began to pull away over the next few minutes. The Knights led by 11, 53-42, with 10:35 remaining. West Georgia Tech led by as much as 21 on three different occasions.

“We've really struggled this year keeping a consistent line-up on the floor,” West Georgia Tech head coach Niki Okolovitch said after the game. “A variety of reasons have kept some key players off the court, and it has really shown in the lack of energy and passion we've played with. I think tonight that fire was back. I think the nucleus we have right now is starting to put it together. We are playing the unselfish, hard-working brand of basketball that we expect from our players.”

Blair Austin (12 points on 6-of-12 shooting), Ryan Jones (12 points on 4-of-5 shooting) and Alyja Hennings (12 points on 4-of-9 shooting) led the way for West Georgia Tech.

Victor Wynn (11 points) and Randazerro Chaney (10 points) also contributed double-figures for the Knights.

The Golden Knights shot 46 percent from the floor. West Georgia Tech controlled the glass, outrebounding Emmanuel 45-34.

Emmanuel shot just 39 percent from the field and was 2-of-16 from behind the arc.

West Georgia Tech forced 24 turnovers.

The Golden Knights will continue a brutal stretch of three games in three nights with a road contest at Chattahoochee Valley C.C. in Phenix City, Ala. tonight (Thursday) at 8 pm.

WGTC will then host Macon State Friday night in LaGrange at 7:30 pm, in a game that was moved up from its original start-time of 8:30 pm.