The West Georgia Technical College men’s basketball team cruised through the quarterfinal round of the Region 17 Division III Tournament, hammering Georgia Northwestern Tech by a 73-33 count Friday evening in Warner Robins.

The fourth-seeded Golden Knights (15-15) advance to face top-seeded and tournament host Middle Georgia Tech tonight at 6 in the semifinals as they try to defend their region crown.

WGTC jumped out to an early 21-5 lead over the fifth-seeded Bobcats (8-19) on Friday and built a 53-20 advantage by the half, shooting a blistering 58 percent from the field during the opening 20 minutes, while holding its opponent to a 21-percent clip from the field

“I’m really excited about the outcome [Friday], and especially the way we played on the defensive end of the floor,” WGTC coach Niki Okolovitch said. “We’ve always been an offensive-focused team, and that is something we have taken pride in. But we spent a lot of time in practice this week working on our defense, and the guys really bought in to it [Friday]. I told them that there is no better feeling than knowing you can stop somebody.”

Randazerro Chaney led the Knights with a double-double, scoring 19 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, while Victor Wynn added 18 points.

The WGTC women will also be in action on Saturday, taking on host and No. 3 Middle Georgia Tech at noon, with the winner advancing to Sunday’s championship.

UWG Softball

Megan Roberts had been the tough-luck loser in two decisions thus far in her college career, but the University of West Georgia freshman hurler broke into the win column in convincing fashion by leading the Wolves to a 1-0 victory over Augusta State in the opening game of the Pioneer Classic in Greeneville, Tenn., on Friday.

Roberts (1-2) has now allowed just four earned runs in six appearances, while striking out 28 batters in 27.1 innings of work and sporting a 1.02 ERA. On Friday, she tossed seven shutout innings, yielding two hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

Entering the bottom of the seventh still scoreless, UWG’s Meagan Stover started the late-game rally with a one-out single and scored two batters later when Danielle Combs delivered the walk-off double.

West Georgia (4-4) continues action at the Classic today against Shepherd at 2 p.m. and King at 4 p.m.