VALDOSTA, Ga. – In non-conference basketball action on Saturday afternoon at The Complex, the Valdosta State men's basketball team overcame a slow start and cruised late for a 99-75 win over Carver.

The win kept the perfect season intact for Valdosta State and improved the team to 4-0 on the season, while the Cougars dropped to 0-6 overall. The Blazers' back-to-back victories on the weekend helped lift Head Coach Mike Helfer to 178 career wins and moved him into second place outright over Gary Colson as the second-winningest coach in Valdosta State history. 

The Blazers struck first within the first 20 seconds of the contest, but Carver responded with a 15-4 run that included three long balls and allowed the Cougars to jump out in front by nine points at the 15:54 mark.

Facing their largest deficit of the contest, James Spencer and Shaun Jones caught fire for the Blazers and fueled a 16-2 run that lasted for five minutes and gave Valdosta State a 22-17 advantage.

Both teams traded baskets throughout the remainder of the first half before heading to the locker room at halftime with the Blazers leading 48-40.

"At halftime, we felt like being up by only eight wasn't acceptable," said Spencer, who led the Blazers offensively with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field. "We felt like the coaches did a great job preparing us for this game, and we should have come out playing better."

Carver hung around in the first frame, thanks in large part to the shooting of Donovan Gardner. The guard shot 5-of-9 from the arc en route to a 21 point total in the first half. Head Coach Mike Helfer and his staff solved Gardner in the second half, however, by using the defensive efforts of Josh Lemons.

"One thing Josh Lemons can do is lock somebody down," said Helfer of Lemons, who held Gardner to just one three pointer and a 3-of-7 shooting performance in the second half. "I thought he did a great job of changing (Gardner's) mindset, and our other guys stepped up on defense as well."

Carver managed to hang around early in the second period, but Spencer's double-double, along with the balanced performance of Jeremiah Hill, helped the Blazers spread the lead in the latter part of the half and claim the big win.

Hill found his range on Saturday night and racked up four three balls in six attempts and a 6-of-10 effort from the field for a total of 18 points. In addition, the sophomore dished out five assists, swiped four steals, and added three rebounds.

The Blazers saw five different players reach double digits in the scoring column, which led to a 50.0 percent shooting effort from the field. VSU performed just as well from long range, with a 13-of-28 total from three-point range for a 46.4 percentage.

Valdosta State will take their flawless record on the road next week to face Georgia Regents in Augusta, Ga. on Wednesday, November 26, at 4:00 p.m. EST.