No. 9 Valdosta State once again found itself playing extra basketball against Montevallo on Wednesday.

Once again, the Blazers (24-2, 17-1 Gulf South Conference) held on as they defeated the Falcons 68-67 in another overtime thriller.

A go-ahead free throw by the Blazers’ Clay Guillozet proved to be the difference with 1:03 to play. On the ensuing Montevallo possession, Falcons forward Juilo Guity had his layup attempt blocked by Jimmy Kodet, who corralled the rebound and passed it ahead.

After running down the clock, Guillozet drove in but missed a wild layup attempt to give the Falcons the ball back with 10 seconds to play.

With the clock winding down, the Falcons’ Deshawn Jones dribbled along the baseline looking to win the game for the home team. Unfortunately for the Falcons, Jones stepped out of bounds as he took off for the potential game-winner.

Knowing the Falcons needed to foul to stop the clock, the Blazers got the ball to Beau Justice who outran the Montevallo defense as time expired, giving the Blazers a school-record 17th straight win.

After the Falcons’ Jeremiah Curtis and Guillozet traded layups to start overtime, the Blazers went ahead 66-63 on Kodet’s fifth 3 of the game with 2:51 left in overtime. Guity’s offensive rebound and putback on the next Montevallo possession cut the lead to 66-65 with 2:19 remaining.

Kodet split a pair of free throws to make it 67-65, before a floater by Curtis tied the game at 67 with 1:24 left.

Kodet scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Blazers, going 5-of-10 from beyond the arc while grabbing six rebounds and blocking three shots in 25 minutes. 

Needing 16 points to reach 1,000 for his career, Justice finished with 16 exactly, finishing 5-of-17 from the floor but tallying six rebounds and dishing four assists––Justice joins older brother Blake in the 1,000-point club, doing so in just 58 games. Guillozet added 11 points and four assists as the Blazers shot just 37 percent from the floor in the win.

Jones’ layup tied the game at 61 with 23 seconds left in regulation. After holding for the last shot, the Blazers looked to Justice to win the game at the buzzer. Justice dribbled to his left, shot faked, and leaned in for the potential game-winning 3, but saw his shot miss off the front rim as time expired.

Following an airball on a 3 by Montevallo’s Chris Williams, the Blazers found Kodet open in the left corner. Kodet pump faked, getting the Zach Jackson to fly by before drilling a 3 to put the Blazers up 61-57 with 56 seconds to play in regulation.

After a layup by Williams made it 52-all with 4:53 left in regulation, Winston Morgan buried back-to-back 3s around a free throw by Williams to put the Blazers up 58-53 with 3:49 to go––the Blazers’ largest lead of the night.

Two free throws by Justin McBride put the Blazers ahead 47-43 with 9:08 to play. The Falcons regained the lead 2 minutes and 4 seconds later on a 3 by Tyler Brough to make it 48-47 with 7:04 left.

The Blazers trailed 29-26 at the half despite shooting 25.8 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes. The Falcons led by as many as seven points in the frame as they punished the Blazers 22-8 in the paint.

Williams led the Falcons with 18 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. Guity had a double-double with 10 points and 16 rebounds while blocking three shots in the loss. Jones added 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, but committed eight turnovers in the game as the Falcons lost their second straight game.

VSU women 61

Montevallo 48

The VSU women overcame 19 turnovers to hold off Montevallo 61-48 on Wednesday night––their fifth straight victory.

Gulf South Conference Player of the Week Madi Mitchell led the Blazers with 15 points and nine rebounds as the Blazers led by as many as 19 points in the game.

Kenya Samone’ Dixon added 12 points and seven rebounds, Taylor Buie had 10 points and five assists and Crystal Townsend chipped in with nine points and a career-high 12 rebounds in the win.

The Blazers outscored the Falcons 40-20 in the paint and doubled them up on the glass 48-24. While the Blazers held a double-digit cushion throughout, turnovers and misses gave the GSC-worst Falcons life as they cut the Blazers lead to six on a pair of free throws by Alba Perez with 4:08 left in the third quarter.

The Blazers led the Falcons 30-17 at halftime behind nine first-half points from Mitchell.

The VSU defense held Montevallo to 6-of-24 shooting in the first half and punished the Falcons inside, outscoring them 22-4 in the paint in the first 20 minutes.

Kiya Sain had 11 points for the Falcons, whose losing streak now stands at 21 straight games.

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The VSU men and women return home to host North Alabama on Saturday.