Damian Young came off the bench to score a game-high 34 points and Jeremiah Hill finished with 33 points as the Valdosta State men’s basketball team romped past the Shorter Hawks 93-76 for its second straight victory Monday night in Rome.

Young shot 12 of 18 from the field, including 5 of 6 from behind the arc, in 23 minutes. Hill made 10 of 18 field goals with nine 3-pointers in 35 minutes as the Blazers improved to 10-3 and 5-2 in the Gulf South Conference. Saadiq Muhammad added nine points and seven rebounds.

VSU never trailed and was on top by as many as 20 late in the game. The Hawks dropped their second in a row.

Phil Taylor was on the floor for the entire game and led the Hawks (8-4, 3-4) with 33 points. He had a tough shooting night, however, going 8 of 22 and 2 of 9 from 3-point range. But he was highly efficient at the foul line, putting in 15 of 17.

Eric Ross had 15 points and 13 rebounds and Cole Birchfield also added 15 points for Shorter.

The Blazers led 43-36 at the break after Josh Lemons’ free throw. Taylor made a layup to cut VSU’s lead to two with 15:33 remaining in the second half, but a 9-5 spurt gave the Blazers a 15-point cushion with 10:50 left and they maintained a gap the rest of the way.

Shorter women 70

Valdosta State 63

The VSU women saw their five-game winning streak come to an end Monday night against Shorter. The Hawks were fueled by an 11-4 run in the fourth to hand the Blazers a 70-63 loss in Rome.

Jackie Hudson and Kayla Tillie both scored in the paint, Denise Newton made a pair of free throws and Taylor Adams added a layup during the decisive 5-minute stretch that lifted Shorter (5-7, 4-3 GSC) to the victory and halted a two-game slide.

The Blazers (8-5, 5-2) surrendered 26 paint points and 19 off turnovers. Shorter received 22 points from bench play to VSU’s six.

Kenya Samone’ Dixon paced VSU with 20 points and 11 rebounds in 39 minutes, while shooting 6 of 13 from 3-point range. Sonya Franklin scored 12 points, Aaliyah Cheatham had 11 points and six assists and Madi Mitchell chipped in eight points, six rebounds and four assists.

Adams scored a game-high 25 points with seven boards, shooting 9 of 11 field goals and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to lead the Hawks. Raven Fair added 10 points and six boards off the bench. Brittany Greene had seven points.

A 3 from Dixon gave VSU a 14-8 advantage with 3:32 left in the opening period for the Blazers’ largest lead of the game. Green scored in the paint to put the Hawks on top 34-30 at halftime and made a free throw to extend the advantage to 43-36 midway through the third before VSU went on a 3-0 run to take a 44-43 lead with 3:17 remaining in the period after another Dixon 3.

The Blazers led for half of the fourth before Shorter rallied to win.

UP NEXT

VSU ends its three-game road trip with a visit to West Georgia on Thursday. The women’s game tips at 5:30 p.m. with the men’s game to follow.