Box Score / Event Stats

Women's Basketball Drops Heartbreaker to West Georgia 55-53

Lady Blazers Come From Behind Effort Falls Short

VALDOSTA, Ga- The #13 Valdosta State women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker to #10 West Georgia, 55-53, after overcoming a 32-17 halftime deficit.

The Lady Blazers (19-4, 5-3) opened up the second half on a 29-12 run that saw them take their first lead of the game, 46-44 with six minutes left in the basketball game. West Georgia (21-2, 8-0) quickly tied it back up with a jumper from LaShandra McCoy and was fouled in the process and regained the lead with a made free-throw.

Julie Kongeskov hit a layup with five minutes left to give VSU their second lead of the game, 48-47, but again UWG had an answer from Ashley Huff who sank a three-pointer putting the Wolves back up by two.

The Lady Blazers did not lay down as Kongeskov again drove and scored, tying the game at 50 at the 3:41 mark. A minute passed with no scoring on either end until UWG's Dominic Cranford made a jumper and added a free-throw to go up by three.

Khaleh Thomas hit the front end of two free-throws at the 2:29 mark to put VSU down two. Both teams exchanged missed shots for the next two minutes and forced the Lady Blazers to foul.

West Georgia missed their free-throw and was rebounded by Kongeskov and forcing a UWG timeout. After the break, Leschelle Matthews hit a layup with six seconds left, tying the game at 53. UWG in-bounded the ball and UWG's Cranford hurried down the court and hit a jumper at the buzzer, crushing VSU's hopes of an over-time victory.

Valdosta State started off slow in the first half, allowing UWG to go on a 20-1 run that lasted ten minutes and ended with a three-pointer from Kongeskov at the 2:27 minute mark and saw UWG up 30-13.

Even though Matthews hit a layup and Michelle Thompson sank two free-throws in the last two minutes, it wasn't enough as VSU ended the first half down 32-17.

The first half saw the Lady Blazers have their worst shooting half of the season with 16.7% from the floor (five-of-30) and were 10% from behind the arc (1-of-10). VSU had 13 turnovers compared to UWG's nine but out-rebounded the Wolves 22-18.

VSU bounced back the second half and shot 44.8% from the floor (13-of-29) and were six-of-12 from the three-point line (50%) and out-scored West Georgia 36-23.

Kongeskov led the Lady Blazers with a season high 15 points on the night and had four rebounds and two steals. Matthews had a season high 14 points and 10 rebounds, picking up her first double-double of her career.

Thomas had 11 rebounds while Carley Peterson scored nine points and had two steals.

As a team, VSU shot 30.5% from the field (18-of-59) and 31.8% from the three-point line (seven-of-22). Out-rebounding West Georgia 44-31, VSU had 19 offensive boards while forcing 20 turnovers on seven steals.

West Georgia was led by Cranford who scored 19 points and had five rebounds. UWG shot 42.3% from the floor (22-of-52) and three-of-nine from behind the arc (33.3%).

The Lady Blazers take to the road this weekend, traveling to North Alabama for a 2 pm game time.

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