Valdosta State’s Josh Sparks is pressured by a Fort Valley State defender near the basket on Tuesday. Despite the tight defense, Sparks scored on this play.

Fort Valley State and Valdosta State won’t meet on the football field this weekend, like many people expected, but the two schools did meet on the hardwood Tuesday.

A barrage of 3-pointers and another hot shooting performance lifted the Blazers to an 89-61 win over the in-state rival Wildcats on Tuesday night. VSU shot 61.4 percent and buried 11 3-pointers, which helped it improve to 2-1 on the young season.

Tristan Steele led the Blazers for the third straight game with 23 points, Billy McShepard registered his third double-double in three games with 14 points and 12 rebounds and Kevin Harris had a double-double with 16 points and 11 assists.

Josh Sparks, Will Alston and Christian Hunter also scored in double digits.

Alston made it three Blazers with double-doubles, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 boards.

“I didn’t realize that, but credit to all those kids,” Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said. “I mean, with six kids in double figures, that shows great balance. I think it also shows guys don’t really care who scores. That kind of reminds me of our teams the last couple years. We didn’t really care about who scored the points, and I think for teams to get better, that has to be your mentality.”

The Blazers jumped out to a 10-0 lead, and held Fort Valley without a bucket for the first four minutes. Harris gave the Blazers a 17-4 lead on a layup, and after Fort Valley closed with a pair of threes, Steele banged home two 3-pointers of his own to put VSU up 30-16.

It wouldn’t be the last time the Wildcats saw Harris and Steele make baskets. The guard duo combined to hit 14-of-19 shots and nine 3-pointers.

VSU took its biggest lead of the first half, 18 points, on an Alston layup with 34 second left.

The Blazers shot 64 percent from the field in the first half, compared to Fort Valley’s 25.7 percent.

It was more of the same in the second half. Steele hit a 3-pointer, Harris followed with a three, and Steele hit another 3-pointer after a Christian Hunter basket. The Blazers led comfortably by 30 points with just under 13 minutes to play.

The Blazers hit 11-of-18 threes.

“I hate to say it, but we kind of live and die with (3-pointers) right now,” Steele said. “If we had a bad shooting night, that might hurt us. But we have so many weapons it’s going to be hard for us to have just a terrible shooting night. We have so many guys who can do it.”

Steele added two more 3-pointers, and now has 20-plus points in all three of VSU’s games.

“I’m just knocking down open shots, and my teammates are getting it to me,” Steele said. “I want them to knock down shots when I give them the ball. We’re winning, so as long as we continue winning, I’ll do whatever I can.”

Fort Valley shot a miserable 31 percent from the floor. Martavious Orr led the Wildcats with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting. The Wildcats fell to 0-3.

It wasn’t a perfect night for the Blazers, who are still trying to jell as a team. They turned the ball over 26 times against the Wildcats’ press, which led to 26 Fort Valley points.

“There was definitely some frustration,” Steele said. “We didn’t take care of the ball very well. They were a scrappy team. They played their hearts out, and we knew that. We knew they were going to force some turnovers and run a full-court trap. We were prepared for it from the scouting report, but I guess mentally we weren’t ready for it.”

Helfer pointed to the lack of depth at the point guard position. Harris was the only true point guard available for the Blazers in the first three games. He played all 40 minutes against Rollins on Saturday, and played 35 minutes on Tuesday. Helfer said Sidney Harris will make his season debut on Friday against Southern Wesleyan.

“As Sidney comes, and he’ll play on Friday night, he’s got to find where he fits into the mold, because we have a pretty good thing going,” Helfer said. “But we need him. We need these guys to come in and help us, and be a valuable piece to the puzzle.”

The Blazers return to the court on Friday, when they host Southern Wesleyan at the P.E. Complex at 7:30 p.m.