VALDOSTA —
VALDOSTA — A game dominated by a horrendous shooting night for the two best shooting teams in the Gulf South Conference won’t be remembered as such.
Instead, it’ll be remembered as a thrilling double overtime contest won by Alabama-Huntsville 81-77 over the Valdosta State Blazers.
Huntsville’s Tyler Hanback scored eight points in the second overtime, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:05 left, to lift the No. 9 Chargers over the No. 24 Blazers in a matchup of top 25 teams at the P.E. Complex.
The Blazers (14-3, 1-1 in the GSC) certainly had their chances to pull off the upset.
With the game tied 51-51 with 0.8 seconds left in regulation, Josh Sparks could have won the game for VSU at the free throw line, but the 76 percent free throw shooter missed both charity shots long.
Sparks went to the line after he was fouled on an attempted tip-in as time expired. The ball agonizingly bounced twice on the rim, but didn’t go in.
The Blazers were a miserable 12 for 24 from the free throw line in the second half.
“It came down to free throws,” Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said. “We were 12 of 24 from the line in the second half, and they were 21 for 26, made 13 straight at one time. We probably had 25 turnovers. You turn it over that many times and shoot 50 percent from the free throw line, you’re not going to win a lot of games.”
VSU again had the last shot in the first overtime, but Kevin Harris’ jumper in the lane with three seconds left was blocked.
VSU got off to a fast start in the second overtime. Harris hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to put VSU up 66-63, but the Chargers (15-2, 2-0) came right back. Josh Yost converted a 3-point play to tie the game at 66-all. After VSU took a four-point lead on layups by Harris and Billy McShepard, Hanback hit two 3-pointers in between a pair of free throws by Josh Magette to give the Chargers a 74-73 lead.
They wouldn’t relinquish it.
“They played great,” Helfer said. “They played without their best player, Zane Campbell, who hurt his knee. They came in here and beat us on our court in front of a big crowd, so all the credit goes to Huntsville. They made all the critical plays at all the critical times.”
Before the madness at the end of regulation and both overtimes, the game was as ugly as could be from an offensive standpoint.
The Chargers and Blazers came into the game No. 1 and No. 2 in the GSC in field goal percentage, but the offense was bad from the start.
The Blazers jumped out to an 8-0 lead, and the Chargers didn’t get their first points until 13:40 was left in the opening half, when Xavier Baldwin made a layup.
From there, the Blazers went cold and the Chargers came back to tie the game at 10-10.
The two teams stayed close the rest of the half, which came to an end with VSU leading just 21-19. Not quite what both teams had in mind. The Blazers came in as the second-highest scoring team in the country, averaging 93.2 points per game. It was clear that their three-game streak of 100-point games wasn’t going to be extended.
The Chargers came in shooting 52.5 percent from the field, the best in the GSC.
Each team was just 1 for 9 from 3-point range in the first half. The program VSU uses to keep stats crashed at halftime, so no statistics were able to be kept. There wasn’t anything pretty to see, anyway.
“It was a bad shooting night for us the entire night,” Helfer said. “They shot it very well in the second half, so I thought they solved their shooting woes and we didn’t. I wish I could explain how that happened. It’s one of those things.”
At one point, Lennie Acuff and Helfer had a humorous exchange from their benches, when Helfer said, “Two best shooting teams in the league,” and Acuff replied, “Two worst teams in the league.”
Of course, that’s far from the truth. The Chargers and Blazers were picked to finish 1-2 atop the GSC East this year, after finishing tied for first last season.
Now the Chargers have the upper hand after stealing homecourt from the Blazers.
Harris led the Blazers with 21 points. Alston added 16 and Christian Hunter chipped in with 12.
Elliott Jones scored 21 points for the Chargers, while Hanback and Yost added 12 apiece.
The Blazers don’t have much time to dwell on the loss. A trip to No. 5 Augusta State awaits them on Monday. After falling to the Chargers, the Blazers could use a region win against a top-tier team.
“We’d better lace it up come Monday night, or we’ll get embarrassed up there,” Helfer said. “We need to make sure we’re ready to go. Basketball is a game where games come flying at you, so we have to make sure we’re ready to be in a difficult environment against a very good basketball team. And I would expect we’ll be ready.”
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Related Photos
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Jonathan M. Chick | The Valdosta Daily Times Valdosta State senior Kevin Harris gets his shot blacked by an Alabama Huntsville player during the game againt Saturday.
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Jonathan M. Chick | The Valdosta Daily Times Valdosta State senior Billy McShepard goes for the dunk during the game against Alabama Huntsville Saturday.
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Jonathan M. Chick | The Valdosta Daily Times Valdosta State senior Billy McShepard hangs from the rim after dunking the ball during the game against Alabama Huntsville Saturday.
Discussion
Chargers drop VSU in 2 OT
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