VALDOSTA – The Valdosta State women (14-3, 13-2 Gulf South Conference) used 49-13 first half to cruise to an 82-31 rout of Mississippi College (4-14, 3-12 GSC) Thursday night.
For the Blazers, the 31 points allowed was a new season-low while the 51-point margin of victory is the most lopsided win for the team since the 2016-17 season when they defeated Trinity (Fla.) by 71, 101-30 on Dec. 1, 2016.
“We’ve talked about how, this year, we’ve got to have good depth and we’ve got to have strength in numbers and I thought tonight was a true testament to that,” VSU head coach Deandra Schirmer said. “We have some of our key players that are still out right now and we said, ‘Next woman up.’
“Going into these last nine games of the regular season, everybody’s got to be ready and to see our group respond in that way and see everyone play well was really a good thing and shows me that w’ere prepared for some of that postseason play and prepared to be at that championship level that we always want to be at.”
Sophomore guard India Jordan delivered the best game of her young career, posting a career-best 21 points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes to lead the Blazers. Fellow sophomore Taylor Searcey recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Blazers won for the 14th time in their last 15 games.
“India Jordan, this past week, has been somebody that when I come in to work, she’s already getting shots up and she beats me in sometimes,” Schirmer said of the athletic sophomore. “Hard work is no accident. Her having 21 points is because she’s outworked a lot of players. She’s come in and she’s worked hard on her shot. She hits the two threes and then she starts feeling good and then nobody can guard her going downhill.
“To see somebody like that who has earned it and has worked really hard to get where she is, it makes me really proud for her because she’s done everything in her power to make sure that she’s put herself in a position to be a high impact player for us. Now she’s starting to see that pay dividends.”
VSU shot 49.2% overall, 9 of 25 from 3-point land and 13 of 17 from the free throw line in the game. All 11 players scored for the Blazers Thursday night while six different players made 3-pointers.
The Blazers outrebounded the Choctaws 48-27 as 10 different players secured at least one rebound. Kendall Bollmer was the only VSU player to not record a rebound.
VSU dominated in the paint by a count of 42-10 and scored 30 points off of 20 MC turnovers.
Led by Aleisha Curry’s 10 points, the VSU reserves outscored the MC reserves 36-18.
Coming off a tough loss at Lee last weekend, the Blazers flexed their muscle defensively – holding the Choctaws nearly 24 points below their season average.
The Choctaws, who shoot 35.1% from the floor as team, shot just 22% from the floor (11 of 50) and 4 of 23 from beyond the arc.
Redshirt freshman Kaylee Jones accounted for nearly half of the Choctaws’ points Thursday – finishing with 16 points and six rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.
“Defense and rebounding is going to be our calling card,” Schirmer said. “I thought tonight, even though we scored a lot of points, the real story is that we held a team that’s averaging (54.7 points) to 31 tonight. The defense and rebounding leads to all of those offensive fast breaks so that’s one thing we always have to hang our hat on. The last two games, we gave up over 40% shooting from the field. That’s not how we play. I was really proud of how they responded. The visiting team only had a 22% shooting percentage and that was something I was really proud of.”
STAT OF THE NIGHT
Losing by 51 points to the Blazers Thursday, the Choctaws almost lost by as many points as they scored against the Blazers in their first meeting as they lost 55-53 back on Nov. 28.
FRANCIS OUT
Junior point guard Tamiya Francis missed her third straight game with a leg injury. Francis was on the bench in street clothes and able to walk with the aid of a crutch during Thursday night’s game.
When asked about Francis’ injury, Schirmer effectively said Francis is out indefinitely.
Francis is averaging 10.5 points, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals for the Blazers through 14 games this season.
UP NEXT
Valdosta State hosts slumping Delta State (7-12, 6-9 GSC) Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The Statesmen dropped their fourth straight game Thursday night, losing 51-40 at West Florida.
In the first meeting between VSU and Delta State, the Blazers won 44-42 back on Nov. 26 in Cleveland, Miss.