WGTC Women Roll Over Faulkner; Men Impressive Over Truett-McConnell

Women win 64-51

The West Georgia Tech women’s basketball team evened its record at 3-3 on the season with a 64-51 victory over the visiting Faulkner University junior varsity squad Monday night.

The Faulkner junior varsity fell to 2-5 on the year.

Kelsey Walthall scored 18 points and pulled down four rebounds to lead the Golden Knights in scoring. Keonna Harris joined her in double-figures with 11 points.

The Golden Knights jumped out to an 18-8 lead at the 11:00 mark only to see Faulkner go on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 18-18. Faulkner led 21-20 with 5:33 left in the half before West Georgia Tech closed the half with a 21-4 run to lead 41-25 at the break.

West Georgia Tech’s largest lead was 24, at 58-34 with 8:15 remaining.

The Golden Knights forced 31 turnovers with Walthall leading the way with five steals as nine different WGTC players had at least one steal on the night.

WGTC shot 40 percent from the field (27-of-68) and was 3-of-12 from three-point range.

West Georgia Tech held Faulkner to just 27 percent shooting overall.

West Georgia Tech will take on the Faulkner J.V. again this Saturday, with a 1 p.m. tip in Bay Minette, AL.

Men win 112-74

The West Georgia Tech men’s basketball team earned its first victory of the season Monday night in impressive fashion, 112-74 over the Truett-McConnell College junior varsity squad in Cleveland, Ga.

WGTC (1-3) took control early and had by far its best half of the season en route to a 67-31 halftime advantage.

The Golden Knights shot 61 percent from the field (42-of-69) and connected on 6-of-11 shots from three-point range (55 percent). The Knights were even more efficient from the free-throw line where they went 22-of-26 (85 percent).

“We are finally getting to the pace we want to play at,” said WGTC head coach Niki Okolovitch. “We've allowed teams to force their style of play on us, and it has slowed us all the way down. The switch finally came on against Chattahoochee Tech last Friday, and even though we threw away a lot of quality scoring opportunities in that game, we could see that things were starting to come together.”

Orlandis Hill led the Golden Knights in scoring for the fourth-consecutive time to open the season. The sophomore transfer from Alcorn State finished with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field. He was 2-of-4 from three-point range.

Six other Golden Knights joined Hill with double-figure scoring, including Shaquille Davis (15 points, 7 rebounds), Xavier Jennings (13 points, 7 rebounds), Devante Orebeau (13 points), Damon Pearson (12 points), and Jon Perry (10 points).

Perry also pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double.

West Georgia Tech returns to the hardwood Thursday for game two of a five-game road-swing, in Birmingham against Lawson State. Tip-time is 8 p.m. EDT.