VALDOSTA, Ga. – Behind double-digit outputs from senior Beau Justice and junior Clay Guillozet in the second half, the Valdosta State men's basketball team earned the season-split with Montevallo Thursday evening at The Complex, 75-70.  Justice buried four triples in the game to move into a tie for tenth all-time in the GSC in career triples made with 231.
 
Justice dropped 16 points in the second half and his fourth triple of the game with 2:23 left for a 73-62 lead, tied Kevin Weybright of Christian Brothers (2003-08) for the Gulf South Conference record of 231 triples in a career.  Justice is 231 of 561 (.412) from beyond the arc for his VSU career as he tied for tenth in under three seasons at VSU.  He finished the game, going 7 of 14 from the field, 4 of 6 from range and 1 of 3 from the line leading three Blazers in double figures. Guillozet added 16 points on 7 of 12 from the field and 2 of 3 from the line, while junior Darrell Jones added 12 points off the bench.
 
The Blazers (16-5, 9-4 GSC) shot 46.6 percent on 27 of 58, overcoming 37 percent shooting in the first half, going 17 of 31 from the field in the second stanza.  The Blazers were 6 of 20 from beyond the arc and 15 of 19 from the line.  Montevallo held a 39-28 lead in rebounding, but VSU forced 17 miscues and held a 20-7 lead in points off turnovers.  
 
The Falcons were led by 21 points off the bench from De'Marco Owens on 7 of 10 from the field with one triple and 6 of 9 from the line.  He had a game-high eight rebounds, while teammate Wade Lowman also had eight rebounds and chipped in 16 points.  UM was 25 of 54 from the field and shot 61.5 percent in the second half on 16 of 26 from the floor, after opening just 9 of 28 from the field in the first half.  UM went to the line 17 times in the second half after going just 2 of 2 in the first.
 
The win evened the season series with the Falcons as the Blazers dropped a disappointing 67-65 decision a week ago as they had a two-point lead with under a minute left. VSU responded with a 113-91 win at Auburn Montgomery two days later.  
 
Tonight, both UM and VSU struggled out of the gate as senior Keshawn Ingram stretched the lead to ten with two free throws at 18-8 with 8:03 left in the first half and he pushed the lead to 12 with two more free throws moments later.  
 
Montevallo kept chipping away and cut the deficit to four at 26-22 with 2:26 left in the half on a 3-pointer from Kaleel Solomon, but Guillozet answered at the other end starting a 5-0 run to end the half for a 31-22 lead at intermission.
 
In the second half, both teams came out with more of a hurried pace as VSU pushed the lead back to double-digits early, only to see Montevallo cut it back to seven with 17:20 left.  VSU responded nicely with a 7-0 run and pushed the lead to as many as 15, but the Falcons kept chipping away, once again.

UM cut the deficit to six on an Owens bucket in the paint with 8:56 left, but VSU stretched it back to double digits on two more occasions, before a late run from the Falcons made things interesting as UM scored the final six points pulling within five with 14 seconds left. 
 
The Blazers have Saturday off as they will return to the road next week at West Georgia and Shorter to open the month of February.  Spencer Van Horn will have the call of the games on 92.1 WDDQ, while links to live stats, audio/video streaming, radio information and more can be found at vstateblazers.com on the men's basketball schedule page.