VALDOSTA, Ga. - The Valdosta State men's basketball team used another balanced effort to outlast the West Alabama Tigers in an 80-73 Gulf South Conference victory on Monday night at The Complex.
"West Alabama is a lot better than they played tonight," said Head Coach
Mike Helfer, who saw his team's record lift to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in GSC play after the win. "I thought we did a really good job defensively as a team. One player did go a little bananas offensively, but I thought we did a pretty good job limiting the rest of their team."
The contest was tightly contested throughout the first eight minutes, which led to a 16-16 tie at the 11:56 mark in the opening frame. Less than one minute later, however,
Justin McBride connected on a shot at point blank range to ignite the Blazers for seven unanswered points, and VSU used that momentum to extend their lead to 41-28 at intermission.
In the second half, the Blazers really got it going, particularly in the first five minutes of the second half, when VSU outscored West Alabama 15-10. The stretch gave Valdosta State their biggest lead of the game at 56-38 with 14:49 left in regulation. The lead proved to be insurmountable for the visiting Tigers, who were led offensively by the 37 points of Charles Eaton.
KJ James delivered a season-high 24 points in the game on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 effort from the free throw line. The senior provided the Blazers with a strong presence inside, which led to 26 points in the paint for the red and black. Furthermore,
Beau Justice poured in 16, despite a clear effort by the Tigers to limit the junior guard's opportunities.
"They tried to take Beau out of the game with a lot of heavy denial tonight, but we were good enough to find other guys and spread it around for other scoring opportunities," added Helfer. "KJ played very well around the rim against length, which he hasn't really done in some of our earlier games this year. He handled himself very well tonight."
As a team, Valdosta State posted another strong offensive outing with a 50.0 percent performance (28-of-56) from the field and a 42.3 percent effort (11-of-26) from the three point line. Most impressive, however, was the team's free throw shooting display, which resulted in a season-high 92.9 percentage from the stripe. Valdosta State is now shooting 74.5 percent from the free throw line this season, which places the Blazers 3rd overall in the Gulf South Conference.
West Alabama saw their record fall to 9-4 overall. The Tigers are now 3-2 on the season against GSC opponents.
Valdosta State will enjoy a very brief break for the holidays, before returning to practice in preparation for a January 2nd matchup against the Lee Flames in Cleveland, Tenn. The game is slated for 8:00 p.m. EST with live coverage available right here at www.vstateblazers.com.
