The Southern Crescent Tigers basketball team blew a chance to keep sole possession of first place in the GJCAA Region 17, falling to conference foe West Georgia Tech 79-59 last Saturday night in region action at Taylor Street gym.

The Tigers fell to 4-14 overall and 4-2 in region play, losing Saturday’s game in front of the biggest crowd of the year in their regular-season home finale. The Tigers had been playing well in conference play, winning four of its last five games before Saturday’s setback.

“We went back to our old way of playing. We had 23 turnovers, we missed layups and we were settling for jump shots instead of getting in the paint,” said Tigers head coach Calvin Sinkfield. “We lost focus and didn’t play team basketball. It’s a shame we played like that in front of our great crowd. Oh well, now we’ve got to win on the road from here on out.”

This game was over in the first half, as West Georgia Tech sprinted to a 42-26 lead at halftime and didn’t look back. W. Georgia got good shots off of missed SC shots from behind the arc and raced to the big lead.

James Dewitt led the Tigers with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Former Spalding High teammates Derrius Tyler and Rodney Gilbert were the next in line for SC, with Tyler scoring 9 points and snagging 7 rebounds and Gilbert adding 8 points and 5 boards.

The Tigers travel to Fort Valley Wednesday night to face conference foe Middle Georgia Tech at 7:30 p.m. Middle Georgia Tech beat SC on Jan. 11 at home. They are off until a tournament at Oxford College at Emory University on Feb. 15-16 and then will play in the Men’s Regional Tournament after that.