Valdosta State senior Christian Hunter (4) takes a shot during the Blazers’ win over Rollins Saturday at The Complex.

The Valdosta State Blazers shook off an opening night loss to win a rematch of last year’s South Region championship game on Saturday.

The Blazers drained 14 three-pointers to down the Rollins Tars 93-83 at the P.E. Complex in the Gulf South Conference/Sunshine State Conference Challenge.

Last season, the Blazers beat Rollins 71-58 to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history.

VSU lost seven seniors off of that team. Rollins, ranked 17th in Division II, returned four of its five starters from that game. It didn’t matter on Saturday. Newcomer Tristan Steele topped his 22-point performance against Saint Leo with 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting from three-point land, and VSU shot 58.5 percent from the field in a win that could have national tournament implications down the road.

“That’s a great basketball team, because they have all those kids back from the regional final last year,” Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said. “I just thought it showed great heart and character by our guys.”

After losing to Saint Leo 85-79 in their opener, the Blazers were sparked by the return of starting point guard Kevin Harris, who missed the game against the Lions. Harris scored 23 points and helped make sure the Blazers salvaged a win in the ambitious GSC/SSC Challenge that Helfer created over the summer.

“Obviously, it’ll have ramifications down the road, but we’re not even looking at that,” Helfer said. “We’re trying to find a way to win Tuesday night (against Fort Valley State). We’re not really thinking a lot about it in that manner.”

VSU came out shooting hot behind Steele, and took a 40-34 halftime lead. Rollins tied the game at 45-45 early in the second half, but the Blazers went on a 15-2 run behind more sharp shooting.

Steele hit his seventh three-pointer to put VSU up 58-47, Will Alston made a layup and later in the half, Christian Hunter buried a three to put VSU up 63-49 on the Tars.

Steele added his eighth three with 10:50 left, and Harris hit a three of his own to increase VSU’s lead to 15 points with just under nine minutes to play.

Rollins cut VSU’s lead to seven late in the game, but the Blazers hit their free throws to secure their first victory.

“We have a lot of weapons,” Steele said. “We’re missing some guys right now, so when everyone gets back, we’ll be even better.”

All-American Nick Wolf led the Tars with 22 points and Niko Baran added 20 points. The Tars fell to 1-1. They beat Delta State in their opener on Friday.

In the other GSC-SSC Challenge games on Saturday, Alabama-Huntsville beat Eckerd 73-62, Florida Southern beat North Alabama 91-62 and Saint Leo beat Delta State 75-66.

On Friday, Alabama-Huntsville beat Florida Southern 87-82 and Eckerd beat North Alabama 83-73.

Alabama-Huntsville, the preseason pick to win the GSC, and Saint Leo were the only teams to go 2-0 in the Challenge.

VSU returns to the P.E. Complex on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., when it hosts Fort Valley State.