West Georgia Tech rolls into DIII semi finals

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. – WGTC men’s basketball coach Niki Okolovitch said earlier in the week that his team was in a difficult spot, having to win three games in three days to successfully defend its Region 17 Division III Men’s Basketball Championship. One down, two to go.

The West Georgia Tech Golden Knights, seeded fourth, advanced to the semifinals with a 73-33 victory over No. 5-seeded Georgia Northwestern Tech Friday evening in the Region 17 Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament on the Middle Georgia Technical College campus in Warner Robins, Ga.

West Georgia Tech, winners of four straight and five of its last six contests, evened its overall record at 15-15. Georgia Northwestern closed its season at 8-19.

The Golden Knights will meet the tournament’s top seed and the host team, Middle Georgia Tech (17-12, 6-2), in a semifinal game Saturday night at 6 p.m. The winner will meet either No. 2 seed Southern Crescent or No. 3 seed Oxford College in Sunday’s championship game. 

West Georgia Tech jumped out to an early 21-5 lead and never looked back Friday night. The Golden Knights led 53-20 at halftime after shooting a blistering 57.9 percent from the field in the first half. WGTC shot 44.8 percent for the game (30-of-67).

The Golden Knights shined on defense. They held the Bobcats to just 20.8 percent shooting. Georgia Northwestern made just 3-of-26 shots in the second half (11.5 percent).

“I’m really excited about the outcome tonight, and especially the way we played on the defensive end of the floor,” Okolovitch said. “We’ve always been an offensive-focused team and that is something we have taken pride in. But we spent a lot of time in practice this week working on our defense, and the guys really bought in to it tonight. I told them that there is no better feeling than knowing you can stop somebody.”

The Golden Knights dominated the boards as they out-rebounded GNTC 51-34.

Randazerro Chaney led the Golden Knights with a double-double, scoring 19 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. He was 9-of-15 from the field.

“We played good team ball tonight,” Chaney said. “That was a total team effort. We executed and didn’t take a lot of bad shots. Focusing on defense all week in practice really helped us.”

Victor Wynn added 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, 3-of-5 from three-point range.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s semifinal matchup, Okolovitch knows it will take a similar effort to down the Titans.

“It’s going to be a tough matchup for us, but we played them tight down here last time and then we weren’t half the defensive team that we are now. We need to hit some shots early in the game and force them out of the zone defense. I know our guys will be ready.”

The Golden Knights split with Middle Georgia Tech in the regular season, winning at home on a buzzer-beater 70-69 before losing the return trip to Warner Robins 76-67.

Fans can watch Saturday’s semifinal games live online by visiting the West Georgia Tech athletics website (www.WGTCAthletics.com) or the GCAA Region 17 conference website (www.thegcaa.com).

The West Georgia Tech women will also be in action on Saturday, taking on host and No. 3-seeded Middle Georgia Tech at noon with the winner advancing to Sunday’s championship.