Adam MacDonald
CARROLLTON — It took the Blazers 13 years to finally win a game over West Georgia on the road. On Saturday, they made it two in a row.
It wasn’t easy.
The Blazers won in The Coliseum by a single point for the second straight year, as they survived a late rally by the Wolves for a 58-57 victory behind tough defense and 23 points from Tyrone Curnell.
“To win back-to-back years here, it’s a credit to the players,” Blazers coach Mike Helfer said. “The players make the plays and I’m very proud of our guys.”
VSU (19-2, 5-0 in the GSC) went without a field goal for 7 minutes and 44 seconds late in the fourth quarter, allowing the Wolves to close to within two of VSU’s lead. Curnell finally ended the drought with a turnaround jumper with 1:17 left to put VSU up 58-54. It proved to be the winning score.
“I knew we had to get a bucket,” Curnell said. “I told my team ,and my coach understood we were going to get it into the paint. He gave me the freedom to do what I wanted to do ... I just turned around and hit it.”
West Georgia hit a free throw to make it 58-55 and had one final chance to tie the game, but Vojin Svilar missed a 3-pointer with time ticking off the clock. The Wolves put back a loose ball with 2.1 seconds left to make it 58-57, but Ricardo Lewis managed to run the clock to .1 seconds on the inbounds pass from Ryan Nelson before getting fouled. Lewis smartly missed the second foul shot, and UWG didn’t have enough time left to get a shot off.
The Blazers extended their season-high winning streak to 11 games.
“We won this game defensively,” Helfer said. “As poorly as we played offensively, and give West Georgia credit because they had a great game plan against us, we won this with our defense. We held them to 36 percent shooting and 17 (percent) from the 3-point line. Defense won this game.”
Curnell wasn’t the only Blazer who helped pull the game out. Lewis hit 5 of 8 free throws and B.J. Dibble hauled in 15 boards. Tristan Crawford hit two free throws late in the game.
“Dibble: The ultimate silent partner or whatever you want to call him,” Helfer said. “He gets 15 rebounds. Unbelievable.”
Jeremy Smith led the Wolves with 15 points. The dangerous John Pringle was held to seven points and six rebounds.
The No. 6 Blazers knew a win in Carrollton wasn’t going to come easy against the Wolves (10-10, 2-3). They hung on for a 61-60 win last year in The Coliseum and got a great game from the home team this year in front of 4,800 people.
“It means a lot being that it took 13 years to get a win here,” Curnell said. “My first year we got a win by one and my second year we got a win by one. It means a lot. You have to give credit to West Georgia for competing so hard and giving us a run for our money.”
VSU returns home on Thursday to host North Alabama. The Blazers have beaten every team in the GSC East.
