VMI Basketball Falls to Washington St., 66-46 in Top of the World Classic First Round

Men's Basketball VMIKeydets.com

VMI Basketball Falls to Washington St., 66-46 in Top of the World Classic First Round

FAIRBANKS, AK ? VMI tried its best to spoil coaching legend Dick Bennett's return to the sideline after a three-year hiatus, but too many VMI turnovers and hot second-half WSU shooting sealed Bennett's successful premiere with Washington State University Thursday night as the Cougars defeated Virginia Military Institute, 66-46, in the first round of the 2003 BP Top of World Classic. WSU improved to 1-0 on the season, while the Keydets dropped to 0-1.

“We rushed ourselves early and we had to make some adjustments on defense in the second half,” said Bennett, who guided Wisconsin to the Final Four in 2000 before retiring early the next season. “I thought we played well on defense. Our kids aren't very big, but they seem to get to the loose ball and that's important.”

“We come into a game looking to play our style and make people adapt to that. We couldn't do that against Washington State,” said VMI mentor Bart Bellairs. “I think we got tired in the second half and lost our discipline on offense. Dick Bennett's teams don't make mistakes. They certainly don't beat themselves.”

Washington State broke the game open in the second half, outscoring VMI 20-12 to open the period to take a 45-34 lead with 11:43 remaining in the game. The Cougars pushed their margin to 17 points at the 9:20 mark when Thomas Kelati nailed a 3-pointer from deep in the corner. Another WSU 3-pointer by Randy Green and a bucket by Chris Schlatter gave WSU a 59-39 lead with only 4:52 to go.

Marcus Moore led the Cougars with 14 points, while Ezenwa Ukeagu contributed 12 points. Shami Gill scored six points, but was a monster on the boards, pulling down a game-high eight rebounds. Washington State shot 41 percent from the field, hitting 23 of 56 shots, and 42 percent from 3-point land, connecting on eight of 19 shots. The Cougars nailed 12 of 15 free throws.

“This was our first game a long way from home and, to our credit, we played good defense,” said Moore. “It seemed like we couldn't make a bucket in the first half, but we didn't seem to give them up, either.”

Radee Skipworth led VMI with 13 points in a losing cause. Tim Allmond tallied nine points and pulled down a team high of six rebounds. The Keydets shot 37 percent from the field, hitting 17 of 45 shots. VMI connected on only four of 19 3-pointers for 21 percent and 80 percent of its free throws.

The first half of Thursday's game was nip and tuck throughout the initial 20 minutes. VMI led 6-3 on a basket by Allmond with 12:16 left in the half and extended the margin to 10-6 before watching the Cougars retake the lead at 16-14. WSU continued its offensive outburst in the waning moments and scored seven of the final 10 points of the period to take a 25-22 advantage at the intermission.

VMI faces Texas-San Antonio Saturday at 4 p.m. (EST). The game can be heard live on the internet at www.vmikeydets.com and fans can follow live stats reports at www.towc.org.

MORE POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH BART BELLAIRS“ We got tired and lost some discipline on offense ? I thought we were right there. We can correct everything that we did. I thought our effort was so daggone good early, but we just missed some easy plays. Dick Bennett teams don't make mistakes and don't beat themselves. I think our seniors Radee Skipworth and Richard Little are great leaders we'll have a great year with them because they do so many great things for us. They'll help rally the troops around and give us and keep the young guys in the fold a little bit better.”

RADEE SKIPWORTH ? “In the first half, we may have come down and taken some quick shots and bad shots a couple of times. I think our defense held us in there in the first half. We started letting up a little bit in our defensive pressure in the second half, and they did a good job of managing the clock in the possessions and getting shots out of the full 35 seconds.”

(Portions of story courtesy of TOWC and UAF Sports Information)
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