VALDOSTA —
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — The Valdosta State Blazers are looking for postseason redemption, and they are off to a good start.
The Blazers pounded Arkansas-Monticello 74-61 in their first Gulf South Conference men’s basketball tournament game since being blown out by Arkansas Tech in the GSC tournament finals last year.
Tyrone Curnell scored 20 points and hauled in 13 rebounds, Marquis Robinson picked up where he left off last week against West Georgia with 17 points and six rebounds.
The Blazers (25-3) hit 9 of 17 3-pointers to advance to the semifinals, where they’ll get a rematch with Arkansas Tech.
“We’re not going to take anyone for granted,” Curnell said. “We’re going to play hard and get the job done.”
The seventh-ranked Blazers might have hit nine 3-pointers, but they clearly punished the smaller Boll Weevils inside with Curnell, Robinson and B.J. Dibble.
“Whenever you play tournament basketball, I think you have to have an inside game,” Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said. “I think we clearly established that early. That was kind of our strategy to go inside and not shoot as many 3s.
“I was proud of our guys. I thought we executed our game plan. I thought we knew what they were going to do offensively. That was part of our scouting reports.”
Helfer’s game plan to get the ball inside to the post was evident from the start. Curnell and Robinson helped the Blazers score 14 points in the paint in the first 20 minutes, but the Blazers also hit 4 of 6 3-pointers in the first half. However, the Boll Weevils (14-11) had 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, and scored half of their points on second chances to keep the game close. VSU finally started rebounding, and went on a 7-0 run to end the half and take a 34-26 lead.
Despite the good work inside, VSU came out firing from beyond the arc in the second half. Dibble started the half with a 3-pointer to give VSU its first double-digit lead, and Tristan Crawford and Kevin Harris also hit 3-pointers within the first six minutes.
“We had wide open looks,” Helfer said. “You have to have an inside game, but you have to have a balance. When we got those wide open looks, we made a few. I thought that was critical, but we can’t just not shoot any 3s.”
VSU opened up its largest lead by 21 points on a 3-pointer by Ricardo Lewis with 10:33 left. The Boll Weevils made a late run to get back within 11 points late in the game. But Lewis, who had left earlier with an ankle injury, came back and effectively ended the game with a 3-point play to put VSU up 73-59 with just over two minutes left to play.
“At the end of games, he has to get in that take-it-over mode,” Helfer said. “It’s kind of like he’s the guy steering our ship as the point guard. When he’s not in that mode, we struggle. He has to stay in that mode the last four or five minutes, and take control of our team.”
VSU only shot 43 percent from the field, but the Boll Weevils didn’t help themselves by shooting just 38.1 percent. The Boll Weevils’ top two scorers missed 10 shots each.
“I told our guys in the dressing room we knew Valdosta was a good basketball team, and any time you get to this level, and I’ve been around long enough to know that, you’re going to have to make shots,” Boll Weevils head coach Mike Newell said. “We’re one of the better defensive teams, not only in the conference, but in the country, and we’ve had to do that, because we’ve been so inconsistent in our shooting.”
Derek Easter led the Boll Weevils with eight points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots. The Boll Weevils had 11 blocked shots, a season high.
Robinson now has 37 points for VSU over his last three halves. He scored 20 points in the second half against the Wolves last Saturday.
“I was trying to get in the game and play hard, and do as much as possible to help our team,” Robinson said.
The Blazers now move on to face No. 2 Arkansas Tech in the semifinals. The Wonder Boys are 26-1 and were ranked No. 1 in Division II for most of the year, until they lost to the Boll Weevils two weeks ago. When VSU and Tech tip off at 3:45 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, it’ll be a matchup of top-10 teams.
“They’re very, very good in all areas,” Helfer said. “When you look at teams, especially when you advance in postseason play, if you have a weakness, someone is going to find it. They don’t have many weaknesses. We don’t have many weaknesses.”
If Newell and Easter had a vote, they would pick the Blazers. Both said VSU was the best team they’ve faced all year. Easter said the Blazers have the advantage inside, with their size and athleticism.
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Valdosta State head coach Mike Helfer talks to his team during the Blazers’ Gulf South Conference tournament victory over Arkansas-Monticello on Friday in Southaven, Miss. Photo courtesy of Tom Hughes
Discussion
Blazers advance past Boll Weevils
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