VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State women’s basketball team got its season off to the worst start possible on Sunday, getting hammered by the Lander Bearcats 71-54 on its home floor.
Lander, which was a participant in the Division II national tournament last year, thoroughly dominated the game in all phases. The Bearcats outrebounded Valdosta State 42-32, scored 21 second-chance points and scored 27 points off of 21 VSU turnovers.
Worst of all, the Bearcats played harder and out-hustled the Lady Blazers on a court that VSU has defended valiantly over the years.
“I don’t know if it’s frustration as much as disappointment,” Lady Blazers head coach Kiley Hill said. “Disappointment and a little bit of anger, because our efforts today were extremely poor in every phase of the game. Over the last nine years, we’ve lost in this arena only nine times, and (Sunday) we were embarrassed from the standpoint or efforts on the offensive end, and more glaring on the defensive end.”
Lander led 28-24 at half, but its offense heated up in the second half. The Bearcats shot 55 percent from the field over the last 20 minutes and outscored VSU 43-30 to cruise to the win. Jasmine Judge led the Bearcats with 15 points. Three other Bearcats scored in double figure.
Leschelle Matthews led the Lady Blazers with 13 points. Matthews scored the first five points of the game. The Lady Blazers shot only 31 percent from the field, and made just two 3-pointers.
VSU actually had a 15-7 lead at the 12:47 mark of the first half. Then Lander’s fast-paced offense became more balanced after starting just 1-of-9 from 3-point land, and the Bearcats finished the half on a 21-9 run.
The Bearcats were able to build their lead to 14 points with offensive rebounds and easy layups in the first seven minutes of the second half. At one point late in the game, Lander had a 21-point lead.
“One thing that we stress in our program throughout the history that I’ve been here has been our defensive efforts,” Hill said. “When you go into a second half and you allow layups, high percentage shots that we give up on poor rotations, as well as the entire basketball game, and give up offensive boards and putbacks, you will not beat anyone, and you put yourself in a situation where you’re always digging yourself out of a hole. It happened that entire basketball game. We’ve got some kids who have to understand these concepts, and ‘kids’ meaning our entire basketball team.
“Until we do those things, we are going to be a very average, and sometimes below average, team. For us, and the expectations put on us by this community, and for ourselves, that’s unacceptable. People have said already that it’s just one game, and we have a long season ahead. Well, the things that occurred (Sunday), if you don’t correct in a hurry, it’ll be an even longer season. Those are things that we are going to do, and if the kids choose not to do that, then that’s fine. I’ll find five who will.”
The Lady Blazers don’t have a lot of time to reflect on the loss. They play Edward Waters tonight at 6 p.m. in The Complex. Hill said it’s good for the players that they have a game tonight, because if they didn’t, he would put them through some tough practices.
