VALDOSTA — Valdosta State’s women’s basketball coach Kiley Hill may have been the kid in school who wasn’t always considered cool with his nose stuck to a book studying, but come test time he was the envy of the class.

Wednesday, Hill and his coaching staff were the envy of the gym as the Blazers showed Covenant College how prepared they were to the tune of 89-50.

“It’s like looking at it from an academic standpoint,” Hill said in regard to the team’s preparation. “Going into a test if you know the material going in, instead of cramming the night before, you’re going to do very well on the test.”

The Blazers (9-3) did very well on the test during the game on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court.

“We do a very good job, we feel like, in our scouting preparation, in terms of watching film and knowing what the team’s tendencies are,” Hill said. “And we feel we’re putting our kids in situations were they can have some success.”

The Blazers’ success started on the defensive end where they held Covenant to a field goal percentage of 35.6 percent.

“That’s what our main focus is,” senior Candice Ferrell said. “On defensive possessions. Our defense leads to our offense and as you can see, it did.”

VSU jumped all over the Lady Scots, racing to an 8-0 lead in part to turnovers.

VSU, which normally has a turnover margin of plus-4.6 this season, created 30 Covenant turnovers compared to the Blazers 19.

The Blazers had 18 steals, appearing more like the psychic friends network than basketball players, as they were at the ball long before the Lady Scots.

“We kind of figured their plays, so we knew where they where trying to pass the ball, too,” Ferrell said. “So we anticipated that and just made the steals.”

Traci Newton led both teams with five steals, and three other Blazers finished with three.

Hill said the Lady Blazers game plan involves four factors, the first being preparedness and the second being pressure defense.

Starting early in the contest everyone in the gym discovered that those two factors would be in play.

“Everything was flowing,” Hill said. “We had rhythm and balance (Wednesday) afternoon.

“I’m very pleased with our basketball play.”

Hill’s other two factors in his team’s style play is playing with quality depth and rebounding.

Those two also came to life against Covenant as the Blazers inside players dominated the Lady Scots.

VSU out-rebounded Covenant 34-23 and picked up 12 of those boards from its bench compared to the Lady Scots eight.

VSU’s bench also outscored the lady Scots 33-24.

“We only had nine healthy bodies (Wednesday), but with our bench depth,” Hill said. “We want to be able to use our bench and maximize it.”

Leading to the Blazers’ victory, along with Hill’s four strengths, was the Blazers physical strength.

VSU was able to keep its opponents off the boards, maintain spacing on offense and dominate inside.

As if the Lady Scots thought the area under the basket literally was paint and paint that was too wet to stand in at that, Covenant gave up 78 Blazers’ points inside.

“That’s one of our strong points, our post players are strong and we wanted to be able to attack that,” Hill said. “And we felt they had some disadvantages defensively against us including matchup problems.

“And, we wanted to utilize some of our post depth. And our guard play did a tremendous job of finding open people and the post did a good job of finishing.”

Among post players Ferrell, a senior center was one of the highlights of the game scoring a career-high 32 points.

Ferrell also added eight rebounds, two blocks and five assists.

“She’s a go-to player,” Hill said. “She’s one that can really take over a basketball game. She can do it defensively and offensively.

“She’s been a four-year starter for me, and is playing like a senior should play.”

Parker’s dominance inside was also due in part to her teammates who distributed the ball with ease.

VSU’s passing had the Lady Scot’s heads snapping from left to right as the Blazers found an open player for 26 team assists.

“The ball movement is the biggest thing, because if you have ball movement you have more space,” Ferrell said. “And if they double in the paint we know our guards are going to be open so we try to get the ball in the paint.”

At a point in the first half, the Blazers were finding so many open people that Covenant coach Roy Heintz yelled instructions to his players.

“I want to know what flavor gum she chewed,” Heintz said. “I want to know if she had garlic last week.”

Fortunately for Heintz’s players noses, they never found out.

If information such as that was on a scouting report, it may turn out that Hill would discover it in his long-lasting task of preparation.

As the Lady Blazers head into the Gulf South Conference season, it is already prevalent on how hard Hill has studied his opponents.

Before Wednesday’s game the Blazers had already begun studying for Saturday’s opponent Lincoln-Memorial.

“I know I feel comfortable, because I know the teams we’re playing and know how they play,” Ferrell said. “Coach Hill has already prepared us for Lincoln, so we’re comfortable going into conference play.’