VALDOSTA, Ga. - Two red hot teams are set to clash on Thursday night in Gulf South Conference men's basketball action. Lucky for hoops fans in south Georgia, that showdown between the Valdosta State Blazers and the Delta State Statesmen will take place at The Complex in Valdosta, Ga.
Both the Blazers and the Statesmen are coming off strong weekends against league opponents. The Blazers (7-2, 3-1 GSC) posted a solid road trip with a pair of respective wins over both Lee and Shorter on Thursday and Saturday last week, while the Statesmen (8-2, 3-1 GSC) represented the first squad to topple No. 24 ranked Union with a narrow 71-69 win over the Bulldogs on Saturday. The Statesmen led by as many as 13 points late in the second half and were able to thwart Union's comeback effort with productive free throw shooting down the stretch.
Valdosta State will enter Thursday's matchup with three of the league's top 12 offensive threats in tow.
Blake Justice currently ranks sixth at 16.7 points per game, while sophomore
Shaun Jones (16.1) ranks eighth, and
Jeremiah Hill (15.0) is 12th overall on the GSC leaderboard. In addition,
Justin Simon has played a key role for the Blazers on the boards and currently stands as the league's top rebounder with an average of 10.1 per game.
The Statesmen will lean on Devin Schmidt, a junior guard out of Sevierville, Tenn., as a primary source of offensive production. Schmidt currently represents the second best scorer in the GSC with an average of 24.8 points per game, and he ranks seventh all-time in the DSU basketball record books with 1,359 career points. Sophomore P.J. Davis and senior Jack Madgen round out the Statesmen's biggest scoring threats with averages of 10.3 and 10.1 points per game on the season, respectively.
Thursday night's highly anticipated contest marks the first of the Blazers' last two games of the 2015 calendar year and is set to tip off at 8:00 p.m. Blazer Nation can follow all of the action live at www.vstateblazers.com, and don't forget to call 333-SEAT (7328) for information on our Christmas Special ticket package, which includes eight home games for just $40.00 (plus tax).
