SPORTS BRIEFS: South Georgia Tech women win region tourney

South Georgia Tech women win region tourney

The South Georgia Tech women’s basketball team captured its second straight NJCAA Region XVII title Saturday, putting the Jets one win away from earning their fifth trip to the NJCAA Division I women’s basketball national tournament.

The Lady Jets (27-5) defeated East Georgia State 61-52 in Friday’s semifinals before claiming a forfeit victory in Saturday’s championship against Central Georgia Tech, which, according to a release from South Georgia Tech, only had four players available to play Saturday.

South Georgia Tech heads to Spartanburg Methodist, the NJCAA Region X champion, for a 2 p.m. contest on Saturday to determine the NJCAA District J champion. The winner automatically advances to the NJCAA national tournament, scheduled for March 19-24 in Lubbock, Texas, while the loser will be eligible for an at-large selection to the 24-team field.

Georgia Southern’s Brown honored

Georgia Southern guard Tookie Brown has been named first-team All-Sun Belt for the third consecutive season, the conference announced Monday.

The junior is the 17th player in the 42-year history of the Sun Belt to earn first-team accolades in three seasons and becomes the first Eagles player to accomplish the feat in Georgia Southern history.

Brown ranks fourth in the Sun Belt in scoring (18.9 ppg), fifth in assists (4.4 apg), second in steals (1.8 spg), second in field goal percentage (.538) and leads the conference in free throws attempted (218) and made (162). He is one of only two players listed under 6 feet tall ranked in the top-100 nationally in field goal percentage and also ranks 18th in the NCAA in free throw attempts, 29th in made free throws and 62nd in steals per game.

Seeded third in this week’s Sun Belt tournament, the Eagles will meet Louisiana Monroe-Arkansas State winner at 8:30 p.m. on Friday in the quarterfinals. The championship game is slated for Sunday.

Mercer baseball scores 33 runs in win

Mercer scored a program record 33 runs to defeat Holy Cross 33-6 in the front end of a doubleheader Monday in Macon.

The football-esque run total was a result of another program record — 28 hits — as Mercer (10-2) won its seventh straight game and clinched the series victory against Holy Cross (1-7). Mercer scored in every inning it had an at bat, including at least five runs in four separate innings.

Mercer batted around the order four times in the first, fourth, sixth and eighth innings. Four Bears players — Brandon Michie, Le Bassett, Sean McDermott and Cory Wright — connected for home runs while the team tallied 10 extra base hits in total.

Chase Burks (2-0) earned the win in his third start of the season with five innings on the mound. Four relievers held Holy Cross to two runs on three hits as the Bears’ offense handled the rest of the damage.

The Bears weren’t able to carry the offense into the second game, losing 7-3 despite the Mercer pitching staff tying a program record with 23 strikeouts between four pitchers. Mercer stranded 11 runners in Game 2.