HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Valdosta State's men's basketball team lost its first conference game of the season to Alabama-Huntsville by a score of 84-66. The loss drops the Blazers to 12-3 overall and 0-1 in the Gulf South Conference.
Leading the way for the Blazers was Tristan Crawford, who was returning from injury. Crawford put in 13 points and brought down six boards in the game.
Ricardo Lewis, Christian Hunter and Ray Cummings each scored 10 points in the losing effort. Marvin Dibble led the team in rebounds with seven.
Alabama-Huntsville had two scorers reach the 20s and Kael Coleman dropped 17. Cody Jones finished with 24 points, while Josh Magette put in 22 points, 18 in the second half. The Chargers scored 44 points in the paint, compared with VSU’s 18, and scored 24 points off Valdosta State’s 17 turnovers. The Blazers did receive strong production from the bench, getting 38 points on the night.
Nine minutes into the first half, the UAH Chargers built a 17-12 lead over the Blazers. Not much changed throughout the rest of the half, as Alabama-Huntsville took a 35-29 lead into the break.
Despite the UAH lead at halftime, Valdosta State actually held the Chargers without a field goal for a span of eight minutes, but UAH scored nine points in that period of time on free throws. Of Alabama-Huntsville’s 35 halftime points, 12 came from the charity stripe.
Coleman dominated the first half, scoring 15 points. Coleman helped UAH score 18 points in the paint to VSU’s eight in the first frame.
To start the second half, Jones started where Coleman left off. He scored nine of the Chargers’ first 11 points. VSU began to chip away at the lead, though, and then a monstrous dunk by Ray Cummings pulled the Blazers within two at the 14:06 mark.
Later, Ricardo Lewis hit a deep three-pointer to pull within one, but UAH’s Josh Magette made a three-point play at the other end to spark the Chargers, who pulled away to make it 57-49. Magette went on to make two deep shots from well beyond the three-point line to push the score to 65-51.
After that, the Chargers proved to be too much for VSU. Alabama-Huntsville overwhelmed the Blazers throughout the rest of the game to finish it, 84-66.
Valdosta State will host West Georgia at 6 p.m. Thursday for the team’s second conference game.
Lady Blazers 59, Lady Chargers 48
In the Lady Blazers’ first conference game of the season, the Lady Chargers of Alabama-Huntsville proved to be no match.
The Lady Blazers stayed in control all night behind Michelle Thompson and Leschelle Matthews. The pair combined for 28 points as the Lady Blazers won, 59-48, to move to 11-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference action.
Brittany Hudson and Tamika Booker each brought down five boards to lead the Lady Blazers on the glass. Thompson shot 50 percent from three-point range, while the Lady Blazers held UAH to just 27.3 percent from long range.
The defense forced 30 turnovers and scored 31 points off the Alabama-Huntsville miscues. Strong team defense held UAH’s high scorer, Ashley Boykin, without a field goal until five minutes into the second half.
The Lady Chargers jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game, but the Lady Blazers roared back with nine unanswered points to force a timeout from Alabama-Huntsville. Thompson started things off for VSU with a three-point play. After a UAH timeout, Sczeny Hartry scored another two points to stretch the Valdosta State lead to 11-5 with 12:22 left in the first frame. From there, the Lady Blazers maintained a 10-point lead throughout the half and finished the first half ahead, 28-18.
The Lady Blazers played strong defense throughout the first half, forcing 17 UAH turnovers and stealing the ball 11 times. VSU held the Chargers to just 25 percent from the field, while VSU shot 38.7 in the first half.
For much of the early second half, VSU continued to maintain the team’s 10-point lead. Then Valdosta State went on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 45-26, until UAH’s Brittany Lovett scored to stop the VSU onslaught.
Alabama-Huntsville caught fire behind two baskets from Boykin and a free throw, but it wasn’t enough, as the Lady Blazers stayed in control to win, 59-48.
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