PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 6 Valdosta State Blazers went back to their winning ways, defeating the West Florida Argonauts by a final of 104-96 on Saturday night. The Blazers improved to 17-3 overall and 12-2 in GSC play while the Argos dropped to 5-15 overall and 4-10 in the GSC.
 
Despite West Florida scoring a season-high 96 points, the Valdosta State offense was able to overpower them by shooting .532 from the floor, .414 from deep, and .889 from the charity stripe. VSU won the turnover battle 20-10 as they also gathered 12 steals which resulted in 31 points.
 
Valdosta State swept West Florida for the second consecutive year as they have now won four straight against the Argonauts and have tallied 12 GSC wins for the first time since the 2022-23 season.
 
Junior Peter McKey scored a season-high 14 points as the Valdosta State bench combined for 33 points on the night. Senior Braxton Williams scored a team-high 22 points 8-16 from the floor and 3-7 from distance while tallying a career-high five steals and hauling in seven boards. Senior Carlos Hart had yet another all-around performance as the guard scored 16 while dishing out six assists, hauled in seven rebounds, and poked away at four steals.
 
In a tightly contested first half, the Blazers jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead within the first two minutes as Braxton Williams had four early points. The Argos would respond quickly, going on a 10-2 run to tie the game at ten that was capped off by a triple from Shay Davis, who finished the game with a game high 24 points.
 
Peter McKey would hit his first of four triples to end the UWF run. This would only slow them down for a brief period, as West Florida would jump ahead by four on a 7-0 until back-to-back jumpers from junior Drew Mills tied things up at 17 with 13:41 left in the first half.
 
After West Florida jumped out to a 22-17 lead, Valdosta State would go on a 9-0 run as Braxton Williams continued his first half dominance. Carlos Hart would hit his first triple of evening on the assist from Mills as VSU was now ahead 29-24. The Argos would cut the deficit to three on a layup inside from Elijah Wyche.
 
Junior Ethan Pires would knock home yet another Blazer triple as the Argos came back with a 6-0 run to tie things up at 36 with 6:53 left in the first half. Both teams would battle the rest of the first half as heading into the locker room, VSU lead 51-50.
 
MJ Jones opened the second half with a layup in transition as it was 53-50. After a triple from Williams and a layup from Hart to grow the lead to five, UWF's Ja'Ron Briggs would lay one in inside before West Florida's Justin Mann called a quick 30-second timeout with 16:13 left in the game.
 
Another layup from Briggs inside made it a 66-63 VSU lead until Peter McKey unleashed back-to-back triples in a 30 second span as it was 72-63 all of a sudden. The Blazers would grow the lead to double digits as a triple from Lucas Brown Jr. had the Argos on their heels with just over 11 minutes left in the contest. Throughout the rest of the evening, West Florida was never able to cut the game to single digits until six seconds remaining as Valdosta State cruised to their 12^th conference victory and a season-sweep of the Argos.
 
The Blazers will continue their road trip, as they head to Cleveland, Tenn. to take on
Lee on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET followed by Trevecca Nazarene on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. ET