HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Valdosta State Blazers dropped their first game of the road trip to the No. 22 ranked Alabama Huntsville Chargers, 85-59. Valdosta State drops to 6-9 on the season with a 3-8 Gulf South conference record.
The Blazer defense started out strong on the first possession, with everyone flying around and forcing an early travel from the Chargers. A step back three from UAH’s Luke Bennett the next time down the floor got Alabama Huntsville going early with a 3-0 lead. Junior Caden Boser got things going for the VSU offense with a layup to make it 3-2. Alabama Huntsville went on a quick 6-2 before junior Braxton Williams hit a shot from downtown to trim the deficit to two.
Williams led the Blazers in scoring with 16 points off the bench, making it the sixth time this season the Thomasville, Ala. native has scored 15 or more points in a game.
A layup in the paint by senior Lee Flenor got Valdosta State within two, making it 11-9 in favor of Alabama Huntsville. A three pointer down on the other end from Tommy Murr grew the lead back to five in favor of the Chargers, as he had a great night, scoring 21 points in 35 minutes and knocking down three threes from beyond the arc.
Turnovers proved to be an issue for the Blazers in the first half, as back-to-back turnovers resulted into a 6-0 Chargers run to lead 20-11. UAH kept pouring it on halfway through the first half, as the Blazers went nearly five minutes without scoring, resulting in a long run for Alabama Huntsville which helped grow their lead to 18 before Flenor came back with a dunk on the assist from Boser with 8:53 left in the first half. Valdosta State was able to chip into the lead, cutting the deficit to 13 heading into the break thanks to a late half three pointer from Williams.
To start the second half, VSU went on a quick 6-2 in the opening minutes to trail by nine points, with graduate student LaTrell Tate swiping it away from Jack Kostel that led to fastbreak layup from fellow graduate student Jay Rucker.
Alabama Huntsville’s Tommy Murr continued his strong night, hitting a three pointer to grow the lead back to 12 for UAH. Both teams were battling back and forth for the first six minutes of half.
The Chargers then bolted on a 17-4 run over seven minutes to grow the lead to 22 with 10:18 remaining in Huntsville. The Chargers would go on to outscore the Blazers 41-28 in the second half, giving UAH the win over VSU by a score of 85-59.
For the game, Valdosta State won the turnover battle 14-19, as those 19 forced turnovers resulted in 19 points for the Blazers. LaTrell Tate recorded a season high four steals, as he helped VSU score 11 fast break points. As a team, Valdosta State shot 23-63 from the floor, 4-22 from three, and 9-17 from the charity stripe.
Up next, Valdosta State travels to Livingston, Alabama to face West Alabama on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 5 p.m. ET before returning to The Complex to face Shorter and Lee for Hall of Fame Weekend.