Valdosta State dominated the second half, and rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to defeat Fort Valley State 59-47 on Friday afternoon in the first round of the Division II women’s basketball South Region tournament at Rollins College.

The Lady Blazers moved on to the second round, where they will face Florida Southern today at 5 p.m. at Rollins’ Warden Arena. The game will be radio broadcast on Talk 92.1 FM and webcast on the Valdosta State website, www.vstateblazers.com.

Valdosta State outscored Fort Valley State 45-25 in the second half, and turned an eight-point deficit into a 12-point win. And the same VSU team that had shot 17.9 percent from the floor in the first half shot an impressive 68.4 percent from the floor in the second half, including 4 for 4 from three-point range.

“I’m really proud of our kids from the standpoint that we didn’t react, we responded,” Valdosta State head coach Kiley Hill said. “That’s something that this group this entire year has done.

“We could have folded after the first 20 minutes, as poorly as we played in certain phases of the game. But it was just a matter of time before we could find an ebb and flow of the game.”

“Hats off to Valdosta State. They played an extremely good second half,” Fort Valley State head coach Lonnie Bartley said. “I thought both of us, for some reason, didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to in the first half. But Valdosta came out and they did what we normally do, just take control in the first five minutes (of the second half).”

At halftime, things didn’t look good for Valdosta State. The Lady Blazers had struggled from the floor in the first half, making just 5 of 28 field goal attempts, and they found themselves trailing 22-14 at halftime.

In the locker room at halftime, Hill asked his team if they had already decided that they were beaten, and reminded them that there was still 20 minutes left to play. The Lady Blazers, it turned out, were far from being beaten. Things changed drastically in the second half.

With 17:29 left in the game and her team trailing 24-14, Valdosta State senior Sczeny Hartry got an open shot from beyond the arc, and buried a three-pointer. Then Hartry stole the ball and passed to Maylisa Johnson for a layup. Then VSU’s Brittney Nelson rebounded a Fort Valley miss — one of her 13 defensive rebounds in the game — and seven seconds later, teammate Kourtnee Williams made a jumper, cutting VSU’s deficit down to three, 24-21.

After a Fort Valley turnover, Brittany Ferguson got the ball in the lane and scored while being fouled. Then she walked to the line, sank the free throw to complete the three-point play and tied the game, 24-24. The next time down the floor, Hartry took a pass from Johnson and drained another three-pointer to give the Lady Blazers their first lead of the game, 27-24. Then Nelson grabbed another defensive rebound and found Ferguson for a layup, making it 29-24.

Fort Valley State’s Jayme Gilbert made a jumper, halting Valdosta State’s run of 15 straight points. But Williams and Hartry made layups on back-to-back possessions, then Hartry made a free throw, completing a 20-2 run for the Lady Blazers.

That run gave Valdosta State a 34-26 lead. The Lady Blazers would hold the lead the rest of the game.

During its 20-2 run, which lasted 5:30, Valdosta State made eight of its nine field goal attempts. Hartry scored nine of her team’s 20 points in the run.

“When we went in at halftime, Coach just said, ‘If one thing’s not working, try to do another.’ So I was really trying to get to the basket,” Hartry said. “Once I hit that three, I was like, ‘Well maybe I can knock down another one.’ We just kept running plays, and then Ferg started hitting shots. It just made it easy for everybody to put the ball in the basket.”

“We finally found a rhythm with our shots, and I think Scz’s three finally opened the door up for us,” Hill said. “Ferg finally was able to just relax a little bit. Nelly hit a three. (Nelson), over the last couple of weeks, has really struggled from the perimeter, but you could finally see her rhythm. But she’d been doing so many things besides that.”

“I think we just started having fun. We relaxed and started hitting shots, and just got up and extended the lead and held on to it,” Nelson added.

The Lady Wildcats answered with seven of the next eight points, four by Yasheeka Jones, and cut VSU’s lead to one, 36-35.

But Johnson made two free throws, Nelson drained a three-pointer, then Nelson made a free throw the next time down the floor. That pushed the Lady Blazers’ lead back to seven, 42-35, with 5:36 left to play. Fort Valley would not get any closer than six points the rest of the way.

Down the stretch, Valdosta State maintained its lead by making nearly every shot it took. The Lady Blazers did not miss any field goal attempts in the final five minutes, and they kept Fort Valley from putting together a run. Hartry’s four free throws in the final 49 seconds sealed the Lady Blazers’ victory.

“Last week, after we had lost in the (Gulf South Conference) tournament, we just remembered that it’s not really how you start, it’s how you finish. And last week, we started well, but we didn’t finish well. So we really wanted to focus this game on finishing this game well, and making sure that this wasn’t our last game,” Hartry said.

Hartry, Ferguson and Nelson are three of VSU’s most experienced players, and they carried their team offensively on Friday. Hartry led the Lady Blazers with 20 points. Ferguson added 15 points and eight rebounds. Nelson had a double-double, with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

“These three kids to my left (Ferguson, Hartry and Nelson) have been a big piece of (our success),” Hill said.

In the first half, the Lady Wildcats put Valdosta State in an early hole, starting the game with a 12-4 run in the first three minutes. Valdosta State scored eight of the next 10 points and cut Fort Valley’s lead to two, 14-12, with 8:29 left in the half. But Fort Valley answered with its own 8-2 run, and built an eight-point halftime lead, 22-14.

But Valdosta State responded in the second half, rallied for the win and moved on to the second round.

“Tremendous amount of determination,” Ferguson said. “Once you make your mind up and want to go after something, you have a group of women that are behind you, that are with you through triumph and through mistakes. Then it becomes a group effort, and I think we had a group effort today.”

“They played harder than we did,” Bartley conceded. “Valdosta deserved (to win) the ball game. They dove on the floor for every loose ball, and almost came up with every one. Either it was Valdosta’s ball that they came up with or it was a jump ball.”

Today, the sixth-seeded Lady Blazers (21-7) will face second-seeded Florida Southern (24-6), which defeated seventh seed Florida Tech 68-52 on Friday.

Jones scored a game-high 21 points for third-seeded Fort Valley State, which ends its season 23-7.

“I love this basketball team,” Bartley said. “They have been nothing but a joy to work with this year. They’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do. … I liked everybody on this basketball team this year. I encouraged them to tell one another that they love them. And they do that for me, and I do it for them. We’re a little bit disappointed, but we’re still a family. We love each other, and I wouldn’t trade them for nothing in the world. I love this team; I love them when they lose and when they win.”