TUPELO, Miss. — The Valdosta State Lady Blazers took 40 minutes to get going, but once they did it spelled trouble for the Arkansas-Monticello Cotton Blossoms.

VSU knocked UAM out of the tournament 60-51 in overtime. With three Cotton Blossoms fouled out and Valdosta finally shooting well the Lady Blazers were able to pull away.

The Lady Blazers were a perfect 6-of-6 in the overtime.

Carley Patterson made one of two free throws for Valdosta to tie the game, before eventually going to overtime.

“Everyone on our team was saying ‘no pressure’,” she said. “Of course, I missed the first one and then one of our seniors told me to take a deep breath, so I took a deep breath and made it. I really think the deep breath helped.”

Valdosta coach Kiley Hill was proud of his players for sticking it out through what was otherwise horendous basketball. Valdosta lead at the half 18-17. The Blazers shot 35 percent in the second half, 30 in the first, but the 100 percent in overtime boosted their overall percentage to 40.8 percent.

UAM shot just 28.1 percent from the field.

Another stunning stat was VSU out-rebounding UAM 54-27.

“[Rebounding] is one of our points of emphasis during the year,” Hill said. “On the other end of the floor, you’ve only got two things — heart and brain.”

The Cotton Blossoms were lead by Wendy Young, who scored 16 points. Jenna Thomas added in 12 for UAM.

Valdosta was led by Nichole Jernigan with 12 points. Peterson, Traci Newton and Candice Ferrell each had 10 for VSU. Peterson pulled down 10 boards while Newton and Ferrell each had 8.

VSU moves on to face Henderson State on Saturday.