Men to play Monticello; Ladies to play Christian Brothers in first round of GSC tournament
VALDOSTA-One day after their wins over the University of West Georgia on senior night at the Complex, the VSU basketball teams learned who they will face in the first round of the Gulf South Conference tournament, which is set to begin on Mar 4 in Southaven Miss.
The Lady Blazers, who clinched the first ever undefeated conference regular season in school history (10-0), will start the tournament off on Thursday afternoon when they play the fourth seed from the Western division, Christian Brothers University.
CBU, who has the shortest drive of any team in the tournament which is 20 minutes, finished the regular season with a 15-11 overall record and a 6-8 conference record. The Lady Bucs are led by Tameka Wooten, who has started all 26 games for the team. The five foot-four inch senior is averaging just less than 16 points per game while averaging five rebounds per contest. Along with Wooten, three other Lady Bucs, Sheena Debose, Normanique Johnson and Jasmine Ellis, also average double figure scoring on the season.
CBU enters the GSC tournament with a clear starting lineup as Wooten, Debose, Johnson and Katie Hume have started every game on the season, while Ellis has started 24 games on the season due to an injury that kept her out of two games this season.
On the season CBU averages 63.4 points per game while allowing just over 68 points per game, while VSU enters the contest averaging 64 points per game while allowing just 53.6 points per game.
With a first round win, the Lady Blazers would then move on to the weekend portion of the tournament to face either West Alabama, who the Lady Blazers swept this season by a combined 53 points, or Delta State, who defeated VSU 54-41 on Dec 15 at the Complex.
The VSU Blazers will enter the GSC tournament as the second seed from the East, despite tying for the division title. The Blazers were given the second seed after losing a deciding coin toss to Alabama-Huntsville, who ended the Blazers 15 game winning streak on Feb 20.
As the second seed, the Blazers will play Arkansas-Monticello, the third seed from the Western division, on Friday afternoon.
Monticello enters the game with an overall record of 14-10 and a conference record of 9-5. The Boll Weevils are led by junior Jarrell Turner, who started all but one game for UAM. Turner enters the tournament as the leading scorer as he averages just less than 14 points per game, while also leading the team in rebounds with 7.5 per game. Nick Carey is the only other UAM player that averages double figure scoring on the year as Carey enters tournament play averaging 11 points per game.
UAM enters post season play averaging 65 points per contest while allowing just over 62 points per game as VSU enters GSC tournament play averaging 83.8 points per game while allowing nearly 69 points per contest.
The Blazers enter the game with three players, Tyrone Curnell, Tristan Crawford and Ricardo Lewis, averaging double figure scoring on the season, while Curnell also leads the team in boards with an average of 8.4 per game.
The game on Friday versus Arkansas-Monticello will be the first time senior guard Ryan Nelson will play against his old team. Nelson spent one season at Arkansas-Monticello before transferring to VSU to play for the Blazers.
With a first round win, the Blazers would then move onto the weekend portion of the tournament. A second round matchup would feature VSU playing either West Georgia, who the Blazers knocked off Saturday night 83-57, or Arkansas Tech, who was undefeated until this past Thursday when Arkansas-Monticello ended their quest for a perfect season.
Read all about the Lady Blazers and Blazers in Southaven Miss, right here at VSUspectator.com.