The Valdosta State women’s basketball team didn’t let a 14-day layoff stop its winning ways.

The Lady Blazers won their sixth straight game Friday night, downing the Nova Southeastern Sharks 64-54 at the P.E. Complex.

“I thought our energy was tremendous and I thought our conditioning level was really good,” Valdosta State head coach Kiley Hill said. “A mark of a good basketball team, or a great basketball team, is the ability to understand that you are not showing up just to play, but you have to be ready to compete and play with a purpose. And tonight, we did that.”

Four Lady Blazers scored in double figures on the night. Brittany Ferguson led the way with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Kourtne Williams contributed with 17 points, while Sczeny Hartry added 15 points in the win. Maylisa Johnson finished with 10 points.

For Ferguson, she has now scored in double figures in all 10 VSU games this season, something the senior credits her teammates for.

“Teammates, they believe in me and I believe in them,” Ferguson said. “It is really just kind of the luck of the draw. It really could be anybody’s night, and I am just trying to stay as consistent as I can for my teammates.”

The Lady Blazers (8-2), who never trailed in the game, jumped out to a double-digit lead midway through the first half, using the first of two Jordan Waugh free throws to take a 20-10 lead.

NSU (7-4) closed the gap behind back-to-back field goals from Jada Buckner, which cut the VSU lead to 23-16.

The Lady Blazers quickly bounced back, using field goals from Williams and Ferguson to push their lead back to double digits.

From there, the Lady Blazers fell ice cold, failing to connect on a field goal for the final 4:12 of the half, giving way to a Nova Southeastern charge. The Lady Blazers led 28-22 at halftime.  

Despite starting 8 of 16 from the floor, VSU finished the opening half 10 of 25 shooting. Five of those field goals came from behind the 3-point line. The Sharks finished the half hot, connecting on four of their final seven shot attempts.

In the second half, the Sharks quickly picked up where they left off, reducing VSU’s lead to just four points (33-29). From there, the Lady Blazers used a hot shooting performance to build a commanding 51-33 lead, outscoring NSU 18-4 across the next seven minutes of play.  

“We did a great job of regrouping out of timeouts,” Hill said. “We had some kids make some big shots down the stretch.”

Despite the 18-point deficit, Nova Southeastern refused to go away, cutting VSU’s lead down to 10 points with 4:48 remaining and back down to nine points with 53 seconds to play.

Although NSU charged, the Lady Blazers’ foul shooting helped secure the victory, as their final 13 points of the night came from the charity stripe. VSU’s free throw success was critical, especially since the Lady Blazers went the final eight minutes and 16 seconds without a field goal.

“Two things we talk about all year long is being tournament tough,” Hill said. “Two things that allow you to be tournament tough is free throws and rebounding… Offensively, we had some great shots; they just didn’t fall.”

Valdosta State returns to action today, when Palm Beach Atlantic visits the P.E. Complex for a 2 p.m. tipoff.