VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State men’s basketball team opened up their home slate with a bang, surpassing the century mark in their two-game homestand.
The Blazers (3-1) first overcame a slow start against the Clinton College Golden Bears to cruise to a 108-90 win on Thursday night. On Saturday night, the Blazers never trailed as they thrashed the Trinity Baptist College Eagles 107-81.
VSU’s blistering pace on offense proved to be too much to overcome for the Golden Bears and the Eagles.
“We like to play fast, and fast is going to usually equal points,” Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said following the win over Clinton College. “That’s something that I always enjoy, but I think that’s how I believe in playing the game. Play fast. If you can get a score, great. That’s just the way I want to play.”
Sharing the Load
Though the Blazers tout a lineup that includes junior forward Caden Boser and West Florida graduate transfer guard LaTrell Tate, they were far from the only two players who racked up buckets during VSU’s opening homestand.
Six players reached double digits in both games. Boser led the way against the Golden Bears with 26 points, while Tate had 17 in the win over the Eagles.
It was a welcome sight for Helfer, who has long been a proponent for team basketball.
“Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve always wanted it to be that way,” Helfer said. “I don’t want one or two guys to get 50 points. I like to have multiple guys. I think it’s harder to defend. I think it’s better for team chemistry. In our style of play, it allows a lot of kids to score, so I’ve always felt that way and I still feel that way now.”
Still, every now and again, one player can take over a game. That’s exactly what Boser did against Clinton College, scoring 18 points in the second half to give the Blazers a huge cushion.
Boser says it was his teammates that gave him the chance to provide the spark the Blazers needed.
“I think we kind of got off to a little bit of slow start in the second half,” Boser said. “I have some great guards, great passers on our team. They were finding me, and I was just fortunate to hit my shots and give us a big spark and lead us to victory.”
The Blazers were even more balanced in Saturday’s win over Trinity Baptist as four starters reached double digits.
Additionally, junior guard Jack Wetzel and senior forward Lee Flenor scored 32 combined points off the bench. In all, the Blazers bench scored 52 points in the game.
“I think that our greatest strength is our depth,” Boser said. “We’re very deep. I’ve told all the guys that we have 10 guys that could start at another D2 school. We just got to learn how to play with that, and guys have got to get into their role. We have a lot of options every game. Anybody can a great game any game, and that’s our greatest strength.”
Pounding the Glass
The Blazers had a dominant effort on the glass over their two-game span as they outrebounded the Golden Bears and the Eagles by a combined 101-57.
Against Clinton College, VSU racked up 21 offensive boards, compared to just five for the Golden Bears. That resulted in the Blazers getting 25 second chance points while the Golden Bears finished with just four second chance points.
The most glaring differential came in the second half. The Blazers dominated Clinton College on the glass 27-9.
Helfer credited his team’s size advantage for their rebounding effort after a fairly even rebounding battle in the first half.
“We didn’t make huge adjustments. We just said, ‘Hey, let’s stick to the fundamentals,’’ Helfer said. “I did think that we had a size advantage, so we could out-rebound them, which I thought was important.”
The Eagles fared slightly better against the Blazers, losing the rebounding battle 46-28. Still, it was a similar result for the Eagles as the Blazers won the second chance battle 20-5.
Embracing the Crowd
The Complex has been notorious for being one of the toughest Division II college basketball environments to play in.
Sometimes, though, that leads to players trying to excite the crowd with a highlight play rather than embrace the crowd.
“I think sometimes when you have a big crowd, you think that you have to do something spectacular to impress them, to get them to cheer,” Helfer said. “I think it’s simple hustle plays, good basketball that makes the crowd cheer. Let the great plays come. Make the simple plays.”
In keeping to just playing simple basketball, the Blazers were able to rack up multiple highlight plays. The most notable instance came at the beginning of the second half against Clinton College when the Blazers had dunks on three straight possessions.
That trend continued into their game against Trinity Baptist. The Blazers had a handful of fastbreak three-pointers following turnovers to bury the Eagles.
“I thought for the first time, we embraced the crowd,” Helfer said. “Don’t try to impress the crowd, embrace the crowd, and that’s what I thought we did.”
UP NEXT
The Blazers open up Gulf South Conference play when they travel to Cleveland, Tennessee, to face the Lee University Flames on Nov. 25 at 4 p.m.