NOTEPAD: CGTC in national tourney, Mercer baseball wins SoCon series

The Central Georgia Tech women’s basketball team won its first ever Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association championship earlier this month, defeating South Georgia Technical College in the tournament finals and securing a spot in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s D-I tournament.

The Lady Titans looked dominant in the GCAA tournament despite entering as the No. 3 seed, knocking off Albany Tech 96-70 in a win fueled by 24 points from Amira Walters-Smith before getting the win in the title game over SGTC 94-83.

The second win came tougher, as Central Georgia Tech had a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter but let South Georgia Tech creep back into it to make it a 69-68 game going into the fourth quarter. The Lady Titans stepped up when it mattered most, though, outsourcing the Lady Jets by 10 points in the fourth to get the victory.

Laterria Green had an incredible 34-point game for Central Georgia Tech in the championship showdown, earning her GCAA tournament MVP honors, while Walters-Smith also had 21 points in the title game.

The Lady Titans earned the No. 24 seed in the NJCAA Division I tournament with the win. They faced State Fair, a community college in Missouri, at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Louisiana in the first round. Despite a valiant comeback attempt after falling behind early, CGTC could not overcome State Fair’s offense in an 80-73 loss.

The men’s team also had a great GCAA tournament run, reaching the championship as the No. 1 seed in the bracket before losing a 75-74 thriller against No. 2 South Georgia State. The Titans could not convert a last-second shot in the paint at the buzzer, ending their season in heartbreaking fashion. Central Georgia Tech’s Roosevelt Brown had a stellar game despite the loss, scoring 24 points while chipping in eight rebounds and seven assists.

Mercer baseball gets conference wins

The Bears played their first series against a Southern Conference opponent last week, taking two of three games to the series against The Citadel thanks to a balanced performance.

Garrett Lambert pitched six hitless innings in the series opener Friday to get things started, with Lopan Shepherd hitting a home run to fuel an eventual 11-0 victory. The Citadel got a bit more going offensively in Saturday’s game, but Mercer got an 8-4 win behind an incredible three-homer game from Braydon Kersey.

Though the Bears could not complete the sweep and fell 3-2 in the third game, they bounced back with a 13-9 non-conference win over West Georgia on Tuesday.

Mercer is now 21-4 on the year, continuing on its 18-3 start, which was the best in school history. That record includes a whopping 16-2 mark at home.

The Bears travel this week for their toughest test yet, a three-game non-conference slate with No. 13-ranked Oregon State in Corvallis.

ACE baseball battles for top spot in region

The ACE Gryphons are battling for the top spot in Region 2-A Division I as the season ramps up, with crucial games against the Dublin Fighting Irish on the schedule this week.

ACE is currently 14-4 overall with an 11-1 region record, with that lone loss coming 3-2 against East Laurens last week — a shocker, considering the Gryphons had beaten the Falcons 16-1 in their first meeting.

Nonetheless, ACE still has a chance to get back in the top spot of the standings. Dublin is 10-0 in the region and currently in first. The two teams played each other in Macon last night, after The Melody went to print, and are set for a second matchup at 4 p.m. Friday in Dublin.

Should the Gryphons win those games, they will jump back into first place, though they will still have to contend with Bleckley County. The Royals are also 10-1 in region play and will face ACE twice later in the season.

Senior Slade Hodge leads the hitting brigade for ACE, while junior pitcher William Makowski is a key pitcher for the Gryphons.

Other Macon teams in Region 2 have struggled, with Central and Southwest stumbling to 1-12 and 2-11 region records, respectively. Northeast has fared a bit better thus far with a 6-6 record against region opponents and a 9-9 mark overall.

At higher classifications, Macon’s other GHSA teams have found difficulties as well. Rutland and Westside have 0-6 records in Region 2-2A play. The Hurricanes’ season has been particularly tough, as Rutland started the year with a 7-0 run before losing their next seven consecutive games to fall to .500.

Howard has been up and down in Region 4-3A, snagging a 5-7 region record thus far with a 6-10 record overall. Matthew Griffin and Joseph Johnson are both hitting well for the Huskies so far this year.

Former Mercer player in Sweet 16

As March Madness rages on this week, Mercer basketball fans might see a familiar face on the court.

Jake Davis, a forward who played at Mercer under former head coach Greg Gary as a freshman during the 2023-24 campaign, is now a member of the Illinois men’s hoops team, which punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 last week with wins over Penn and Virginia Commonwealth.

Davis, originally from Indianapolis, averaged 9 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Bears before transferring to Illinois. He scored 26 points in a game against Georgia State, which is still his collegiate career high.

With the Fighting Illini, Davis has averaged about 15 minutes per game across two seasons. He has started 19 games and averaged about 20 minutes this year while giving Illinois 5.6 points and two rebounds per game. His best performance of the year was a 15-point effort in a 90-55 win over Southern University.

With Davis as a contributor, the Illini earned a No. 3 team in the NCAA tournament and have a vaunted scoring unit that ranks near the top of the country in offensive efficiency. Illinois played Houston on Thursday, after The Melody went to print.