VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 22 Valdosta State men's basketball team opened the 2020 portion of the schedule with an 88-53 victory Thursday evening versus visiting West Florida.  VSU improved to 9-3 overall and 3-2 in Gulf South Conference play, while West Florida fell to 5-7 and 2-3 in league play.
 
VSU was led by a career-high 25 points off the bench from sophomore Cam Hamilton as he was 9 of 15 from the field, while draining six triples in nine attempts and collecting four steals leading four players in double figures.  Junior Burke Putnam added 20 points on 8 of 10 from the field and he had a career-high nine assists. Over the last two games, Putnam has gone 20 of 30 from the field, 5 of 11 from beyond the arc, 5 of 6 from the line, nine rebounds, 13 assists and two steals, while scoring 50 points.  
 
Along with Hamilton and Putnam, VSU had double-doubles from seniors Bryce Smith with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Clay Guillozet with 10 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.  Guillozet now sits just six points shy of the 1,000-point mark for his VSU career.  He also needs just four rebounds for 500 rebounds for his VSU career.  Guillozet was all over the floor tonight with a season-high nine offensive rebounds and the 16 total rebounds also marked a season-best. 
 
As a team, VSU shot 34 of 72 from the floor for a 47.2 clip, while it was 8 of 17 from range and 12 of 20 from the line.  VSU out-rebounded UWF 50-30, including 18-8 on the offensive end and forced UWF into 22 turnovers, leading to a 31-17 lead in points off turnovers and 42-18 in points in the paint.  UWF entered averaging just 11.9 miscues per game to lead the GSC.  
 
VSU held the conference's leading scorer, Jon Brown, to just 13 points, as he entered averaging 22.3 points per game for the season.  Brown was just 3 of 12 from the field with a triple and 6 of 7 from the line as the only Argo in double figures.  UWF was 16 of 52 from the field, 4 of 14 from beyond the arc and 17 of 21 from the line. 
 
The Blazers blew open a close game over the final 8:32 of the first half as the team went on a 27-10 for a 49-28 lead at intermission.  For the first half, VSU shot 20 of 37 from the field for a 54.1 average, while going 5 of 9 from beyond the arc and 4 of 8 from the line.  Hamilton exploded in the first half for 18 points on 7 of 9 from the field and 4 of 5 from beyond the arc.  Brown had 12 points in the first half for UWF and added just one point in the second half.
 
VSU heads to West Alabama for a key clash with the Tigers beginning at 5 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon in Livingston, Ala.  Spencer Van Horn will have the call of the game on 92.1 WDDQ FM, as fans can access links to live stats and audio/video streaming of the game on the men's basketball schedule page on vstateblazers.com.