VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State men's basketball team defeated the Union Bulldogs by final of 100-80 in the GSC Quarterfinals at The Complex on Tuesday night. The Blazers will advance to the semifinals in Birmingham, Ala. where they will take on No. 3 seed Montevallo at the Pete Hannah Center on Saturday, Mar. 8 at 8:15 p.m. ET.
 
Things were all square at 26 with 6:42 left in the half before a 27-5 run from VSU for the final 6:42 all but sealed the Blazer victory as they led 53-31 at the break with the Bulldogs not getting within 16 points in the second half.
 
The Blazers advance to the GSC Semifinals for the first time since the 2020-21 season when went on to win it all before falling in the first round of the NCAA South Region Tournament to West Georgia.
 
MJ Jones was the star of the night yet again, as he propelled the red and white with his second consecutive 20+ point game as he finished with a flat 20 on 8-13 from the field, 2-6 from deep, and a perfect 2-2 from the charity stripe while dishing out six dimes with no turnovers and leading the team in steals with five.
 
As a team, Valdosta State forced 20 turnovers with 14 of them being steals as they scored 32 points off those turnovers and 29 fast break points. Valdosta State had 17 more shots than Union as VSU was 37-81 from the floor for a .457 clip while UU was 32-64 from the field for a .500 clip. Both teams shot solid from distance as The Blazers were 9-26 and the Bulldogs were 11-24. Preventing Union from getting to the line was a major key to the game and Valdosta State did just that as head coach Mike Helfer's squad held them to seven attempts where they made five while the Blazers 17-19 for the game for a .895 percentage.
 
Six Blazers scored in double figures for the first time since Feb. 1 as Drew Mills was as efficient as ever as the forward from Baltimore scored 18 points on 6-10 from the field and 2-3 from deep while recording a season high three steals.
 
Carlos Hart secured the single season steal record for VSU as he surpassed Blazer legend Patrick Diop with his steal at the 3:49 mark in the first half. Hart now has a total of 75 steals on the season as he looks to grow it with plenty of basketball on the horizon. Hart also recorded his fourth double-double of the year as he finished with 14 points and ten rebounds while dishing out six assists and not committing a single turnover.
 
First Team All-GSC player Carlos Hart started things off with a layup on the right block to open the scoring. Both teams would go back and forth as the Blazers held a slight 9-7 lead heading into the first media timeout. Coming out of the break, Lucas Brown Jr. scored inside on an alley oop layup from Peter McKey as they took an 11-7 lead. Union's Judson Bjornstead retaliated with a layup inside to cut it back to one. The Bulldogs would take an 18-16 lead on an 8-0 run with 11:30 left. The run would grow to 11-0 after Devaki Garr hit back to back threes as it was 21-16 with 10:34 left in the first half.
 
The scoring drought would end at 4:10 as Drew Mills converted a tough end one to cut it to a single deficit game. A few possessions later, Mills would tie to game at 22 with a left wing triple as The Complex started to gain some momentum. The run would grow to 10-2 as Drew Mills picked the pocket of Devaki Garr and toss it ahead to Hart who slammed it home with two hands as things were tied 26-26 with 6:42 left in the first half.
 
VSU came out of the break firing on all cylinders as back to back threes from Braxton Williams and MJ Jones grew the lead to ten as they went on a 22-3 run in just over two and half minutes of play before a triple from Kaleim Taylor made it 36-29 heading to the under four timeout. Hart showed why he is the leading scorer as he bullied the Bulldogs inside for a quick two to grow the lead to nine. After the VSU defense forced a ten second backcourt violation, Hart rebounded his own miss and kicked to Jones for an elbow jumper to grow the lead to 40-29, the largest if the night so far. Another steal from Mills and Jones resulted in four quick points as the lead had balloon to 15.  The defense kept suffocating UU as Jones' third steal of the half resulted in a one handed jam from Drew Mills as it was 48-29 with 1:37 left. Two free throws from the Bulldogs slowed the Blazers down just a second as MJ Jones buried a triple with seconds remaining in the first half as they led 53-31.
 
Both teams were trading buckets in the second half as Union outscored VSU 49-47, but The Complex got the loudest all night when senior Ian Jordan flushed home a one handed dunk with five seconds last to put Valdosta State over the century mark for the ninth time in a 100-80 victory.