VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State women's basketball team begins the 2020-21 season Saturday at 2 p.m. versus West Georgia at The P.E. Complex.  
 
For the 2020-21 academic year, the GSC will utilize divisional play in basketball. The schedule will feature a combination of single game matchups and two-game series against the same opponents on consecutive days at the same location. The format is intended to streamline COVID-19 Pandemic testing protocols and reduce travel costs.
 
Additionally, the conference will implement a mirrored schedule, with the men and women playing at opposite sites, eliminating all doubleheaders.
 
With no change to the schedule for NCAA Regionals, the GSC Basketball Championships will keep their dates, with the quarterfinals set to begin on March 2, 2021. More information on those tournaments will be released closer to that time.
 
Due to the pandemic, there will be no paper programs at the games this season, please click on the link to the right of this story and each home game preview throughout the season.  There also will be sheets at the entrances of the P.E. Complex each gameday with the QR code for the game program.  
 
Fans can access links to live stats, audio/video streaming and radio broadcast information of the games all season long on vstateblazers.com on the women's basketball schedule page.  This season, VSU women's basketball games, both home and away, will be broadcast on WJEM 94.3 FM Fox Sports Radio and online at foxsportsvaldosta.com with Mike Chason and Spencer Van Horn having the call.  
 
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there will be limited occupancy for home games and face coverings will be required at all times for all guests over the age of 2. 
 
VSU is coming off an 18-11 record overall and a 10-10 mark in GSC play under first year head coach Deandra Schirmer in 2019-20.  The Lady Blazers qualified for the Gulf South Conference Tournament for the fourth-straight year, falling at top-seeded Union in the quarterfinal round on Mar. 3.  
 
Last week, the 2020-21 GSC Women's Basketball Poll was released with the Lady Blazers picked fourth in the East Division.  Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the league was divided into two divisions this season, an East and West Division to limit travel during the pandemic.  The East Division is comprised of VSU, Auburn Montgomery, Lee, Montevallo, Shorter, West Florida and West Georgia.  Lee was picked to win the East Division, followed by Montevallo, West Georgia, VSU, Auburn Montgomery, West Florida and Shorter.  
 
In addition to the preseason poll, the preseason all-conference team was announced as VSU senior Kayla Bonilla was named to the GSC Preseason All-East Division Team.  This was her first preseason all-league honor of her career.  West Georgia's Taylor Brown, Shorter's Jasmine Gaines, West Florida's Danielle Norquest and Lee's Haley Schubert round out the East Division Team.  Only Bonilla and Schubert are returning all-conference honorees from last season, as Schubert was a first team selection and Bonilla earned second team accolades.
 
Due to unusual start dates for many teams throughout the country, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) will not have its first national Top 25 and region rankings until January.  However, the D2 Sports Information Directors Association (D2SIDA) released its preseason region top ten last week.  
 
In the D2SIDA South Region poll, Tampa was picked first, followed by both Union and Lee from the Gulf South Conference for second and third, respectively.  Delta State was tied for fourth with Benedict.  Florida Southern was picked sixth, followed by Eckerd, Alabama-Huntsville, Montevallo and Miles rounded out the top ten.  West Georgia was the only team receiving votes in the poll.  In all, six teams from the GSC were either in the top ten or receiving votes, marking the most of any of the three conferences in the region.  The South Region is comprised of the Sunshine State Conference, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the GSC.
 
Heading into the 2020-21 season, Schirmer and the Lady Blazers welcome Bonilla, who led the team in scoring as a junior and earned second team all-conference honors last season.  Bonilla became the 27^th player in program history to score 1,000 career points and did it in just under three years.  She has 1,041 career points in 90 games with 78 starts.  Bonilla was named GSC Player of the Week twice last season and averaged a career-best 16.7 points per game in 2019-20.  She was a team-best 118 of 149 from the field for fourth in the league in made free throws.  Bonilla scored in double figures 24 times last season and had ten games of 20 or more points.
 
Also returning is senior Delaney Bernard who averaged 8.8 points per game for fourth on the team in 2019-20.  She played in all 29 games with 24 starts, going 90 of 233 from the field and 50 of 156 from range.  Juniors Kayla Frey, Abby Rouse and Jaynese Perry also return, along with sophomore Kendall Bollmer.  
 
Schirmer added the services of some talented newcomers, including graduate transfer Kwajelin Farrar, who came to VSU this season after graduating from South Carolina Aiken.  At USCA, Farrar had an outstanding career earning second team all-region honors and first team all-conference honors last season.  She averaged 16.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per game for the Pacers.  She earned all-region honors twice, all-conference honors three times and was the Peach Belt Conference Freshman of the Year in 2016-17.
 
In addition to Farrar, Florida Southern sophomore transfer Jirah Ards also joins the team this season.  Ards played two seasons for the Lady Mocs.  As a freshman in 2017-18, she played in 30 games and started 20 averaging 28 minutes per game, six points per game and 3.7 rebounds per contest.  Chattanooga State Community College junior transfer Shanice Nelson also joins the team as she played in 59 games at CSCC.  She averaged 14.1 points there for her career.  Schirmer also added three talented freshmen in India Jordan from Rochester, N.Y., Taylor Searcey of Lincoln, Neb., and Alexandria Smith of Cincinnati, Ohio.  
 
Both Farrar and Ards were named to the GSC All-Newcomer Team when the preseason conference poll and preseason all-league teams were announced.
 
West Georgia finished the 2019-20 season 18-11 overall and 11-9 in league play.  The Wolves lost in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament at No. 3-seed Delta State.  UWG won its final four games of the regular season to qualify for the postseason conference tournament. 
 
The Wolves return eight players from last season and two starters, but lost their top two scorers from a season ago in Ashely Lee (13.4 ppg.) and Edley Drawhorn (12.9 ppg.).  Brown, who averaged 11.3 points per game last season in 28 games, returns along with Siera Carter at 10.7 points per game.  Carter started all 29 games last season.  She was 118 of 293 from the field (.403), while averaging 5.2 rebounds per game.  Brown was 106 of 239 from the field and 84 of 118 from the line (.712), while averaging 4.5 rebounds per game.  Kylah Mize who finished second on the team in made 3's last season with 44 returns for 2020-21, along with Zaria Bankston who led the team with 66 assists a season ago.
 
UWG is under the direction of head coach Scott Groninger who is 138-143 (.491) for the Wolves and 95-95 in GSC play since 2010-11.
 
The Wolves opened the 2020-21 season on Wednesday at Montevallo with a 77-72 win.  Brown finished the opener with 22 points on 7 of 11 from the field, while going 8 of 8 from the line.  Newcomer Morgan Perkins notched her first double-double with 16 points and ten rebounds.  Montevallo raced out to a 21-2 lead over the first seven minutes, but the Wolves closed the opening frame with an 11-3 run to pull within 24-13.  The teams flipped the script in the second quarter with UWG outscoring the Falcons 24-13 for a 37-37 tie at half.  A 22-9 third quarter gave the Wolves a 59-46 lead heading into the fourth.  The Falcons outscored the Wolves 26-18 in the fourth and had the deficit at three with 35 seconds, but charity tosses by UWG pushed the lead to five late.   
 
The Lady Blazers and Wolves have split the last 20 games dating back to 2011.  VSU won the last meeting 80-72 on Feb. 8, 2020, in Valdosta to split the season series in 2019-20, and snap a three-game skid.  VSU is 8-2 at home against the Wolves during the past 20 meetings and 2-8 on the road.  
 
Bonilla averaged 21.0 points in the two meetings last season on 12 of 32 from the field and 15 of 21 from the line.  She had nine assists and six steals, while averaging 5.0 rebounds per game.  Bernard averaged 12.5 points per game and drained five treys.  VSU shot 51 of 136 from the field (.375) for the two games, while going just 12 of 43 from range and 35 of 55 from the line.  The Lady Blazers averaged 49.5 rebounds per game and scored 74.5 points per game.  Conversely, UWG went 47 of 130 from the field, while making 18 of 56 3's and was 38 of 54 from the line.  The Wolves averaged 43.5 rebounds per game and 75.0 points per game.  
 
Brown is the top returning scorer against VSU from last season for UWG, as she averaged 13.5 points in the two meetings and was 12 of 16 from the line, while averaging 6.5 rebounds per game. Mize also averaged double figures at 11.0 points against VSU last season, while going 5 of 6 from beyond the arc in the two games.
 
VSU heads on the road at Montevallo on Wed., Dec. 16, before returning home to host Lee on Sat., Dec. 19 at 2 p.m., to close out the 2020 portion of the schedule.