VALDOSTA, Ga- The Sailfish men’s basketball team opened up the Valdosta State Classic Friday night with a 84-77 defeat at the hands of the host school Valdosta State. The ‘Fish had four players hit the double-digit mark in scoring, but were unable to hold their lead in the final minutes. 

The Sailfish jumped out to an early lead, Friday night, but their early lead would not remain for long, as the game saw eight lead changes on the evening, and nine occurrences where the game was even. 

The widest advantage the ‘Fish held onto on the night was a five-point lead, which they held with 8:04 left in the first half, and again with 16:39 left in the second half. 

With 7:38 remaining in the contest, the Blazers took a 67-65 lead thanks to a Jeremiah Hill three-pointer and Valdosta State wouldn’t look back. The ‘Fish trailed by as much as nine in the final five minutes and kept pushing to bring the game level, but were unsuccessful doing so, missing six of their final eleven from the field on the night. 

Freshman Bakari Warthen led all scorers on the night with 19 points, and he was just one rebound shy of a double-double. Derick Yepes added 16 points and dished out four assists. Osandai Vaughn scored 13 on the night, hitting 2-of-2 from thru-point land, and Michael Simpson added 12 points of his own on the night. 

The ‘Fish connected on 29-of-57(50.1 percent) attempts from the field tonight, only landing 6-of-17 (35.3 percent) from three-point range. 

Both teams were pretty even scoring in the paint, off turnovers, and points off the bench, but the Blazers were able to score 22 points on the night off second chance opportunities verses the Sailfish 10 second chance points. 

The Sailfish have a quick turnaround as they look to wrap-up the Valdosta State classic Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. as they take on Lee University. The ‘Fish return to the Rubin Area Saturday, December 5 as they host Barry University at 2 p.m.