VALDOSTA — The Blazer basketball team keeps reaching new milestones. On Saturday, it was the coach’s turn.
Two days after setting a new single-game attendance record and winning their most consecutive games since joining Division II, the Blazers won their 100th game under head coach Mike Helfer with an 83-63 win over the Lambuth Eagles at the P.E. Complex.
As usual, Helfer heaped the praise on his players, who overcame a sluggish start and a 16-point first half deficit to win their 13th straight game.
“It means for 100 games, and more than 100 games, I’ve had very, very good players and good coaches to help,” said Helfer, who is 100-40 in his five seasons at VSU. “That’s not a head coaching thing, it’s a program thing.”
Tyrone Curnell notched his second double-double of the season against Lambuth by scoring 19 points and bringing in 10 rebounds. Ricardo Lewis scored 14 points and Charles Belton, Tristan Crawford and Kevin Harris finished with eight points.
Lambuth started the game on fire, hitting 4 of 8 3-pointers and scoring off of VSU turnovers. Xavier Price hit a 3 and Jayvonte Hughes put back an offensive rebound to put the Eagles up 32-16 with 7:03 remaining in the first half.
With the P.E. Complex crowd growing restless, Curnell fired the building up by driving to the rim and finishing with a two-handed power dunk. The dunk sparked a 28-5 run over the remainder of the first half and into the second half.
Crawford scored all eight of his points on the run, including two on an alley-oop from Lewis that cut Lambuth’s halftime lead to five. The Blazers took the lead for good on a putback by Belton early in the second.
“We talked going into the game that a lot of teams have come in here, and maybe because of the environment, they started really fast,” Helfer said. “They were no different from North Alabama or (Alabama) Huntsville. Again I think our depth wore on them and we slowly regained control of the game.”
Lambuth went nearly seven minutes without a point into the second half and kept throwing up 3-pointers that didn’t fall. After starting the game shooting 77 percent, the Eagles finished shooting 33.8 percent. They missed 18 of their final 22 3-point attempts and were 8 of 30 overall from beyond the arc.
VSU only turned the ball over three times in the second half after committing 13 turnovers in the first half.
“We were flat to start and I think it happens in athletics,” Helfer said. “We beat them pretty easy up at their place. I didn’t think we respected them at the start. That respect started to grow quickly. (Lambuth) wasn’t a flash in the pan. They played really well in the first half.”
VSU beat Lambuth, an NAIA school from Tennessee, earlier this season 104-76. That win was No. 5 on VSU’s 13-game winning streak. The all-time school record for consecutive wins is 16.
The Blazers have four games remaining in the regular season. They travel to West Florida on Wednesday. They return for their final home game of the regular season against West Georgia on Feb. 27.
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