VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State women's basketball team is scheduled to close out the 2022-23 regular season this week with a pair of Gulf South Conference contests at West Alabama and at Alabama Huntsville. 
 
The Lady Blazers and Tigers battle on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 6 p.m. ET, while VSU travels to UAH for a 3 p.m. ET tip on Saturday, Feb. 25.  Fans can access links to live stats, audio/video streaming, ticket information and more at vstateblazers.com on the women's basketball schedule page.  The games also will be broadcast on the radio on 92.1 WDDQ FM in Valdosta and at www.talk921.com with Spencer Van Horn having the call.
 
VSU enters the week with a 19-5 record overall and an 18-4 mark in GSC play.  The Lady Blazers already have clinched a home game for "Super Tuesday" on Feb. 28 for the first round of the GSC tournament.  Heading into the final week, the Lady Blazers are tied with West Florida for third in the league standings.  Lee leads the league with a 20-2 mark, while Union is second at 19-3.  The Lady Blazers can finish as high the No. 2-seed in the upcoming tournament and a shot at a share of the regular season title by winning out and having Lee lose twice. 
 
VSU will host a "Super Tuesday" Game at a time to be determined later this week, along with an opponent to be named following the conclusion of the regular season on Saturday.  Tickets for the "Super Tuesday" game are on sale now in the VSU Athletic Ticket Office.  
 
West Alabama enters with a 13-13 record overall and a 10-12 mark in GSC play.  The Tigers have not yet clinched a spot in the conference tournament as they are seventh in the league standings at this point.  UWA would clinch a spot with a victory in one of the final two games or losses by both Christian Brothers and UAH.  UAH enters with an 8-18 record overall and an 8-14 mark in league play.  The Chargers also have not clinched a spot yet and are tied for ninth in the league standings.  UAH would be eliminated with a loss this weekend to either West Florida or VSU and a win by West Georgia.  
 
The Lady Blazers are coming off of a pair of wins at home over Montevallo and Auburn Montgomery last week.  Against UM, the Lady Blazers had four players in double figures, led by 12 points off the bench from junior Aleisha Curry, while sophomore Taylor Searcey pulled down a double-double with 11 points and ten rebounds.  VSU held a 17-13 lead after one quarter and outscored the Falcons 23-14 in the second stanza for a 40-27 lead at the break. UM held a 32-31 lead in the second half, but the 12-point cushion in the first half proved to be the difference in the game at 71-59.  On Senior Day, junior Emma Martin dropped a career-high 26 points on 9 of 12 from the field and a blistering 8 of 11 from distance leading three players in double figures.   VSU used a 20-12 second quarter and a 23-17 third quarter to pull away for a 75-62 victory over the Warhawks.
 
VSU was one of the teams under consideration in the first NCAA South Region poll released last Wednesday by the NCAA.  The second region ranking is scheduled to be announced this Wednesday and be where teams are actually seeded if the tournament began right now.  Check back with vstateblazers.com for more info Wednesday afternoon on the region rankings.  
 
The Lady Blazers are looking for their 20^th victory of the season for the 18^th time in program history and are under the direction of fourth-year head coach Deandra Schirmer who is 81-26 at the helm of the program and is 61-18 in GSC play.  This season, the Lady Blazers are 12^th nationally and tops in the GSC in scoring defense allowing just 55.2 points per game, while the team is third in the league in field goal percentage (.427) on 535 of 1252.  VSU is third in the league in free throw percentage at a .731 clip on 328 of 449, while it is third in the league in scoring margin (9.3), third in 3-point field goal percentage (.333) on 152 of 456 and second in the league in turnovers forced per game at a 19.67 clip. 
 
VSU downed both UWA and UAH at home the first week of January as the Lady Blazers posted a 75-57 victory over UAH and held on for a 59-52 victory over UWA.  Martin had a team-high 18 points off the bench against UAH as VSU forced the Chargers into 20 turnovers and scored 26 points off the miscues.  VSU had just nine turnovers in the contest.  Leading by four at 41-37 entering the fourth quarter, VSU used a 12-7 run to get some separation for a 55-46 lead with 4:21 to go.  
 
The Lady Blazers have won 16 of the last 23 games against UWA and have won four-straight in the series.  The Lady Blazers have won seven of the last ten in Livingston, Ala., in including four-straight there.  VSU owns a 15-6 record over UAH in the last 21 meetings and has won three-straight.  VSU is 6-4 in Huntsville over the last ten road games and has won four-straight there.