Finding the fire: Brown pours in 26, Blazers rally to beat Warhawks

Dec. 21—VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State Blazers rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to nudge past the Auburn Montgomery Warhawks 84-78 Monday night.

Freshman guard Ricky Brown poured in a career-high 26 points to lead the Blazers.

Making his second consecutive start, the Valdosta High School product hardly missed a shot — making 10 of 14 field goals overall, 3 of 4 from 3-point range and 3 of 4 at the free throw line in a career-high 37 minutes.

"I had the confidence, Coach had the confidence in me," Brown said. "He saw that I had it going, so we went with it and I was able to execute and it felt great out there."

A 3-pointer by Sam Youngblood gave the Warhawks a 51-39 lead with 15:26 left in the game.

Though Youngblood's triple drew a collective groan from the home crowd, the Blazers made a four-man shift to try to find a spark as Brown remained in the game to play with Mohamed Fofana, DJ Mitchell, Justyn King and Cam Selders.

The substitution worked as the Blazers forced the Warhawks to go 1 of 7 from the floor over the next 4 minutes and 38 seconds.

As the defense began to scramble and find success, the Blazers also got hot during the stretch with a 13-2 run to cut the deficit to 53-52 on a jumper by Mitchell with 10:40 to go.

"We talked about that; make hustle plays on defense, whatever it might be, because they're so physical," Blazers head coach Mike Helfer said. "You've got to try to respond with a scrap play — a dive, a tipped ball, a deflection, whatever it might be. I thought we had that after that slow start to the second half. For the last 14 minutes, we had that pretty much every possession."

Following a short jumper in the paint by Mitchell, Isaiah Hart answered with a pull-up 3 from the right wing to make it a 62-57 Warhawks lead with 8:31 remaining.

The Blazers stayed connected as Michael Cole scored inside, followed by a miss by Hart. The ball was rebounded by Mitchell who kicked ahead to Cam Hamilton. Hamilton drove and kicked the ball to Fofana, who connected on only his fourth triple of the season to tie the game at 62 with 7:31 left.

A basket by Cole with 5:54 left not only gave the Blazers the lead for good, but it keyed a 14-4 run that opened up an 80-69 lead with 1:03 remaining — effectively securing the victory.

Along with Brown's shooting accuracy, Mitchell and Fofana sparked the Blazers with their aggression and energy off the bench. The duo combined for 26 points and 10 rebounds in 48 minutes off the bench.

"Both of those guys could start. They're starters and they've accepted, right now, a role to come off the bench," Helfer said. "They came in tonight and impacted the game in a positive way and changed the momentum. It's such a great lesson for anybody — like, don't get hung up on starting. How can you affect the game in a positive way? They both did that."

Jacolbey Owens had 15 points, five assists and four rebounds for the Blazers, who picked up a key GSC win before the holiday break.

The Blazers shot 55.2% from the floor in the second half to finish at a 48.4% clip for the game. Led by Brown, the Blazers shot 7 of 17 from beyond the arc and 17 of 23 from the free throw line in the win.

Hart went for 23 points on 9 of 19 shooting, along with four rebounds and four assists. James Graham posted a double-double for the Warhawks with 20 points and 10 rebounds while Roderick Smith added 13 points and five rebounds in the loss.

"They came right at us," Helfer said. "They're a good team. Their starting five are really good GSC players and they came at us like a Mack Truck. We didn't respond great, but we responded. Then we come out the second half and they came at us even harder and we just didn't have that pop in our step and I really am proud of that second group that came in and said, 'Alright, we're gonna get into the fight and we're gonna make things happen.' They did and got the momentum turned."

UP NEXT

Auburn Montgomery: Hosts Lee Jan. 2 to open the new year.

Valdosta State: Closes out 2021 with a road game at Alabama Huntsville on New Year's Eve.

"We have to take care of the ball in critical situations and tonight we didn't take care of the ball to start the game," Helfer said. "But then we did the last 35 minutes of the game. The first five, we were not good. If you're going to win on the road, you've got to take care of the ball. You can't come in and be sloppy on the road and feel like you're gonna get momentum from a visiting crowd. You're not, so you've got to be very precise with the ball, you've got to rebound it and I think you've got to be physical if you're going to win in this league."

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