Albany Herald

Michelle Mitchell posted a double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds) in Saturday's region title-clinching win against Georgia Highlands.

ALBANY – Region XVII No. 1 Darton State College beat No. 2 Georgia Highlands College, 62-56, on Saturday to wrap up a regular season that produced 26 wins and an undefeated 14-0 record at home.

Under head coach Lea Henry, who is in her second season with Darton, the Lady Cavaliers finished this regular season ranked No. 12 in the NJCAA — the highest ranking the program has ever achieved — with a 26-3 overall record and an 18-2 conference record.

With the regular-season conference title all wrapped up, Darton now turns its focus to hosting throughout the conference tournament and entering the tournament as the No. 1 seed on March 1.

But first, Darton must win the tourney, which starts Tuesday when the Lady Cavs host local rival Albany Tech at 6 p.m. in the first round.

Sophomore Michelle Mitchell led Darton’s offense today, scoring 17 points and nabbing 12 rebounds. Freshman center Iesha Bonner scored 15, and Tamara Fisher came off of the Darton bench to score 10.

Albany Tech closes regular season with Ws

ATLANTA — The Albany Tech men’s and women’s hoops programs — one of which is moving on to the postseason, while the other is not — both closed out their regular seasons on high notes Saturday.

The men, who will miss the region tournament for the first time since the program was first started five years ago, beat Georgia Perimeter, 64-53, to end the Titans’ season at 10-20 overall and 6-14 in region.

Nouhoum Boucoum led the way with 22 points, while Tony Fears added 11.

The Lady Titans’ season, meanwhile, will continue.

Already locked into the No. 8 spot for next week’s region tournament — against No. 1 seed Darton — Albany Tech closed out with a 57-55 victory against GPC, thanks to a 3-pointer by Tierra Grier with seven seconds left. Grier finished with nine points, while Richanna Jackson — Bainbridge native — led ATC (15-15, 8-12) with 11 points and 15 rebounds.