Blazers overcome rebounding woes to beat Tigers

Jan. 9—VALDOSTA — Despite a glaring deficit on the backboards, the Valdosta State Blazers (12-6, 8-4 Gulf South Conference) made enough shots to stave off the West Alabama Tigers (13-3, 9-3 GSC) 96-84 Saturday evening.

In a game that saw the Tigers grab as many offensive rebounds (27) as the Blazers snared total rebounds, it was the Blazers' shotmaking that made all the difference.

Offsetting a 48-27 rebounding margin, the Blazers shot a blistering 58.3% against a Tigers defense that ranks second in the GSC in field goal percentage at 41%.

When asked how many times he's seen a team rebound the ball that effectively, Blazers head coach Mike Helfer could only shake his head and chuckle.

"Not many. I will say this, the fact that they had that many rebounds and we still were able to beat them, that says a lot about our guys," Helfer said. "They're the best offensive rebounding team I think I've seen since I've been here. and we knew that on video, but when you get it in person, it's really unbelievable how they offensive rebound the basketball. Give our guys a lot of credit — I thought we battled better in the second half. We weren't great, but we were better in the second half for sure."

The offensive success was born through balance as VSU had five players in double figures Saturday, led by sophomore big man Caden Boser.

The 6-foot-8 forward from Eau Claire, Wisconsin poured in a season-high tying 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting along with four rebounds and two blocked shots in 33 minutes. Boser also connected on all five of his free throws, bringing him to 92.2% on the season.

Boser's offensive game was on full display as he punished smaller Tigers defenders with an array of moves around the basket as well as stepping outside for a 3-pointer early on.

"It was good," Boser said of his performance. "They didn't send any doubles so give credit to my teammates for getting me the ball and then just trusting me to make the right play and eventually win."

With Boser leading the way, other Blazers found success — particularly the seniors. Jacolbey Owens scored 20 points and dished eight assists, forward Maurice Gordon had 16 points and five rebounds and Cam Hamilton and Mohamed Fofana each chipped in with 13 points in the win — the Blazers' fourth in a row.

"(Boser) was really able to score it on the low block and I think they weren't expecting that," Helfer said. "He's just a smart player and knows how to play. We got it to him and just let him kind of dictate it from the low block."

Though the team struggled to finish off possessions with defensive rebounds, the Blazers continued to play good enough defense to distance themselves on the scoreboard — holding the Tigers to 40.3% shooting and blocking seven shots on the night.

"Sometimes our length is what gets us those blocked shots, but you'd think our length would help us on the glass and we've just got to get better at that," Helfer said. "I just think we're a hard team to score on because we have that length, we have athleticism, we have quickness, we have depth; we have a little bit of everything, so hopefully we can keep getting better and better and better defensively."

The Tigers were only able to produce 40 points in the paint and 30 second chance points off their 27 extra opportunities. The Blazers, spearheaded by Boser, outscored the Tigers 50-40 in the paint.

"We talked about it — this one was gonna feel like an NCAA tournament game," Helfer said. "When you get in the NCAA tournament, NCAA tournament teams take good shots, control tempo rebound it well — that's West Alabama. That's what they do. For us, being able to win at different paces and different ways is going to hopefully pay off for us down the road."

Point guard Justin Allison led West Alabama with 18 points. Shardarrion Allen had 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Kuran Garner posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Thaddeus Williams added 12 points off the bench.

The Tigers led 49-48 at halftime as they outrebounded the Blazers 27-8 — 18 rebounds coming on the offensive end.

Allen scored 13 points in the first half, knocking down three of the team's six triples.

The Blazers went up 46-45 on a layup by Fofana off of a feed from Owens with 1:34 left in the first half.

What happened next was a microcosm of the Blazers' rebounding woes.

The Tigers missed six consecutive shots at the rim, managing to recover the ball each time as Allen tipped in a miss by CJ Melton with 58 seconds left in the half.

"We really focused on the rebounding at halftime," Boser said. "We knew they had 18 offensive rebounds at halftime and as a team, we just came together and we were just like hey we've got to box out, we've got to get rebounds and finish defensive possessions and that won us the game in the end."

Williams stole the ball from Owens and hit Allison for a 3 to give the Tigers a 33-32 lead. Six seconds later, the Tigers turned a turnover by Fofana into points as Allison pushed the ball ahead to Allen for a 3 to give UWA a 36-32 lead with 5:15 left before halftime.

The Blazers responded with a quick 8-2 spurt as Gordon converted a three-point play, Boser knocked down a 3 and Owens drove in for a layup to put the Blazers back in front 40-38 with 3:44 to go in the half.

VSU started the game well, opening with a 9-0 run and pushed the lead to 15-3 on a 3 from Gordon with just over 5 minutes gone by in the game.

With the win, the Blazers now own wins over three of the five teams ahead of them in the GSC standings.

"You've got to always say, 'Hey, anybody can beat you on any given night,'" Helfer said. "That's one thing that once you get to the second round of the schedule, it really doesn't matter what happened the first round. You've got to be ready for a team to play you great every single night in this league. Shorter and Union was an example, so I think we've just got to be ready that second round and don't say, 'Hey, it's gonna be the same team we played a month, two months ago.' It's going to be a different team and we've got to be ready."

UP NEXT

Valdosta State hits the road this week for road games at Shorter Jan. 12 and Lee Jan. 14.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.