VALDOSTA, Ga. – Coming off a thrilling 71-66 overtime victory over Montevallo on Tuesday, the Valdosta State women's basketball team heads to Birmingham, Ala., for the Gulf South Conference Women's Basketball Semifinals Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.  
 
Fans can access the GSC Women's Basketball Championship page by clicking here.  All Tournament games will be streamed on FloSports.  Please note, in order to get GSC preferred pricing ($19.99/mo.) fans MUST sign-up through the football portal to take advantage of the $19.99 pricing.  Click here for the link to the football portal.  Subscriptions can be canceled anytime. 
 
Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.  There is a discounted rate on digital tickets by Friday, Mar. 3.  
 
Saturday's game will be broadcast in Valdosta on TALK 92.1 WDDQ FM and on talk921.com with Mike Chason having the call.  
 
VSU is making its 32^nd appearance in the GSC Championship and is 25-28 all-time with this season being the 19^th semifinal appearance, along with eight trips to the finals. The Lady Blazers have won three titles in 1983, 1984 and 2017.  Last season, VSU defeated West Alabama 72-41 in the Super Tuesday game and then lost to Lee 74-61 in the GSC semifinals.  In 2019, VSU lost 81-73 in the championship game to Lee, after knocking off top-seeded Union 68-62 in the semifinals that season. 
 
The Lady Blazers remained fifth in the third NCAA South Region women's basketball poll, which was released Wednesday.  Tampa headlined the region rankings, followed by Eckerd and Union.  Lee was fourth, followed by VSU.  Tuskegee was sixth, followed by Nova Southeastern and Lynn rounds out the top eight this week.  West Florida was ninth and Savannah State was tenth.
 
The top eight teams in the region will qualify for the NCAA South Region Championship when the selections are made public on Mar. 5.  The No. 1-ranked team in the region most likely will host the NCAA South Regional Mar. 10-13, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Elite Eight and National Semifinal rounds in St. Joseph, Mo., on the campus of Missouri Western University.  The NCAA Division II National Championship Game will be Apr. 1, 2023, at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, in conjunction with the Division I Women's Final Four.
 
VSU is 22-5 overall this season and went 20-4 in Gulf South Conference play tying for third in the league standings.  The 20-4 GSC mark by the Lady Blazers is the most wins in conference play in a season in program history.  The 20 wins ties for the third-most all-time in GSC history.  Union and Lee each had 21 wins in league play this season, sharing the GSC regular season title, while West Florida and VSU each had 20 wins and Union won the regular season in 2015-16 with a 20-2 league record for the most wins prior to this season in league play.
 
In the second semifinal on Saturday will feature No. 3-seed West Florida vs. No. 2-seed Union.  The winners of the two semifinal matchups will be Sunday, Mar. 5 at 1 p.m. ET in the GSC Championship.  
 
Lee defeated the Lady Blazers twice this season, including a 56-55 loss in Valdosta on Nov. 17, 2022, in the second game of the season and then in Cleveland, Tenn., 59-50 on Jan. 14, 2023.  Against the Lady Flames this season, VSU shot 36 of 101 from the field (.356), while going just 6 of 34 from distance (.176) and 27 of 33 from the line (.818).  The team averaged 33 rebounds per game with 19 assists, 42 turnovers, five blocks and 17 steals.  Lee shot .441 from the field against VSU on 45 of 102 from the field, while it was 10 of 34 from deep (.294) and 15 of 29 from the line (.517).  The Lady Flames averaged 32 rebounds per game with 19 assists, 39 turnovers, four blocks and 17 steals.  
 
Sophomore Kate Tanner led the team averaging 9.5 points per game on 7 of 13 from the field in two starts.  She was 5 of 7 from the line, while pulling down eight rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal.  For Lee, Mallory Hampton averaged 16.0 points on 12 of 25 from the field (.480), 3 of 7 from deep and 5 of 10 from the line.  She pulled down nine rebounds with seven assists, one block and one steal. Hampton earned second team all-conference honors this season, while Haley Schubert, who earned first team all-league honors, went 11 of 26 from the field against VSU, 2 of 7 from deep, 4 of 8 from the line, along with five assists and three steals.  She averaged 14.0 points per game against the Lady Blazers. 
 
The series with Lee has become quite the rivalry over the last few years.  This marks the third-straight year the teams have met in the GSC Tournament with Lee winning last season 74-61 in Birmingham in the semifinals and in 2021 in Valdosta in the quarterfinals, 74-71.  The teams also met in Birmingham in 2019 in the GSC Championship Game.  
 
Overall the series is tied 13-13 dating back to Dec 19, 2013.  Since the 2020-21 season, the teams have played 11 times with Lee holding a 6-5 lead.  VSU leads the series in neutral site matchups, 4-2.  
 
VSU went 1-1 this year against West Florida as each team won on its opponents' floor, while the Lady Blazers also went 1-1 this season against Union.  VSU downed the Lady Bulldogs 60-54 in Valdosta on Dec. 11, 2022 and defeated West Florida in Pensacola, Fla., 60-56 on Dec. 18, 2022. 
 
Against Montevallo on Tuesday, it marked the first overtime game for VSU since a 63-60 loss to Lander in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Mar 13, 2021.
 
The Lady Blazers trailed by as many as six points in the first half in a game that had nine ties and eight lead changes throughout.  Four different Lady Blazers were in double figures led by a game-high 18 points from senior Jirah Ards, who went 7 of 10 from the field, 1 of 3 from distance and 3 of 5 from the line, while pulling down four rebounds and registering three steals to earn Guardian Bank Lady Blazer Player of the Game honors.  Junior Tamiya Francis and Tanner each added 16 points, while junior Aleisha Curry had 11 points off the bench.  Tanner just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.  
 
On a tough shooting night, especially from downtown, the Lady Blazers shot 25 of 60 from the floor (41.7%), while they were just 3 of 19 from distance and 18 of 28 from the line.  VSU used strong defense and forced 17 turnovers by the Falcons for a 13-7 lead in points off turnovers.  The Lady Blazers tied their season-high with five blocks, but none were bigger than junior Emma Martin's rejection of Marisa Snodgrass at the buzzer in regulation.   
 
In the extra session, both teams struggled a bit from the line as VSU was 2 for 4 to start the overtime and UM was 1 for 2 with VSU leading 61-60 with 3:45 to go.  Curry came up with a big layup in the paint and then sophomore India Jordan made one of two tosses for 64-60 lead.  Flack cut the deficit in half to 64-62, but Francis answered with her second triple of the game for a 67-62 score and 2:13 to go.  Ards made one of two free throws for a 68-62 score with 29 seconds left as the Blazer fans began to feel it with a strong student contingent on hand, including a large number of student-athletes from other VSU athletic teams.  VSU made enough free throws down the stretch as UM had to foul for the 71-66 victory. 
 
VSU head coach Deandra Schirmer is 84-26 in her fourth year at the helm of the Lady Blazers. She is 63-18 in Gulf South Conference play. Schirmer is 6-6 against Lee, while she is 4-2 against West Florida and 2-4 against Union.  
 
Nationally speaking, the Lady Blazers are second in the GSC to Union in scoring defense at 56.2 points per game for 15^th nationally.  The Lady Blazers are third in the GSC in free throws made per game (13.52), third in rebounding margin (3.7), third in field goal percentage (.432) on 614 of 1420 from the field and third in steals per game (9.3).  Individually, Ards is third in the league in steals with 62, while she is fourth in the league in steals per game at 2.38 and fifth in the league in assist/turnover ratio at a 1.86 clip.