This story was written by Austin Wells. 

The Lady Blazers bounced back from a season-opening loss to defeat the Fort Valley State Lady Wildcats 81-71 at the complex.

After only scoring 59 in their opener, the Lady Blazers bounced back on offense, shooting 48.5 percent from the floor. The scoring was led by April Thomas, who scored 22 points along with grabbing six rebounds. Maggie Davis had a solid night as well, collecting 14 points and six rebounds.

“Tonight I felt like we got rid of some of those first game jitters,” head coach Kiley Hill said. “We took a deep breath and responded instead of reacting, which I think was really positive. We were consistent with what we were trying to do.”

On defense, the Lady Blazers held the Lady Wildcats to 34.2 percent shooting. The Lady Wildcats were led by Brittnee Hazel who had 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.

“We gave up 71 points, which is not good,” Hill said. “The bottom line is that we were able to make enough stops to win, but we’ve got to do a better job of closing out games defensively and when we have an opportunity to bury somebody, we bury them.”

The Lady Blazers’ next game is Tuesday, which will not only be VSU’s first road game but a rematch with FVSU.

“Both of us are going to make said some adjustments,” Hill said. “I think they’re going to try to do some things that will disrupt us and we’ve got to be able to counter that.”