Sczeny Hartry (3) and the Valdosta State Lady Blazers defeated West Georgia on Saturday.

Valdosta State’s women’s basketball team squeaked out a victory, 45-44, over West Georgia on Saturday.

The Lady Blazers won despite a scoring drought of more than nine minutes in the second half. The win pushes Valdosta State’s record to 19-6 and 9-4 in the Gulf South Conference. West Georgia drops to 9-15 and 4-9 in the conference.

Sczeny Hartry led Valdosta State with 13 points, playing the entire game. Both Brittany Ferguson and Courtney Mitchell scored 10 points. Mitchell also grabbed 11 rebounds. Ferguson contributed seven boards. Meanwhile, Brittney Nelson had five assists to go with five points and nine boards. Maylisa Johnson and Kourtnee Williams each gave out three assists.

The Lady Blazers would suffer a six-minute scoreless drought to start the game. Finally, Ferguson found Johnson for a lay-up and VSU’s first points of the game to break a 9-0 opening run for the Wolves.

West Georgia scored another basket on the ensuing possession, but Valdosta State answered with a three-pointer from Hartry, the GSC leader in three-pointers. The Lady Blazers would only make up three points on West Georgia’s opening 9-0 run throughout the half, and trailed 30-24 at the break.

Ferguson and Mitchell led VSU in the half with six points apiece, while Hartry and Nelson, coming off the bench, each had five points.

Valdosta State wasn’t able to put a run together to close the gap in the first half, and head coach Kiley Hill found himself with even more problems at the break. Ferguson and Johnson, two of VSU’s biggest contributors, were in foul trouble with three fouls each.

After two baskets from Ferguson and one from Johnson to start the second half, Hartry buried a three-pointer from the right corner to give Valdosta State its first lead of the game, 33-32, just three minutes into the second half.

West Georgia came back to regain the lead on free throws, but Williams made another three-pointer for VSU. When the Wolves tried to answer, Williams stole the ball and found Hartry streaking for a third consecutive Lady Blazer three-pointer to grab a 39-34 lead.

The Lady Blazers were on an 8-0 run and had held West Georgia without a field goal for nearly 10 minutes until Shunice Hardy scored a falling lay-up. Krystal Delph followed it with a three-pointer to pull the Wolves within one, 41-40, with 7:59 left to play.

Neither team would score again until Mitchell dropped in two free throws to give the Lady Blazers a three-point lead, 43-40, with 4:46 left in the game. With 2:28 left, Delph pulled the Wolves within one after she rebounded a Hardy free throw and scored on the lay-up.

With under a minute left, West Georgia turned the ball over to VSU. The Lady Blazers would have the ball coming out of a timeout with 41.6 seconds left in the midst of a scoring drought that had only seen two VSU points since the 9:38 mark.

Out of the timeout, Valdosta State could not score and there was a scrum for the loose ball rebound. As both teams wrestled for possession, Hill called a timeout, which enabled VSU to retain possession with 14 seconds left.

Forced to foul, West Georgia fouled Mitchell, who promptly made both free throws on a 1-and-1 opportunity for a three-point VSU lead, 45-42, with 12.2 seconds left.

The three-point lead proved to be exactly what VSU needed. Delph drove for a lay-up, but the clock expired after VSU inbounded the ball.

Valdosta State will face West Florida in its final regular season game next Saturday in Pensacola, Fla.