NORTH CHARLESTON, SC - Less than a week after suffering an 84-49 loss at Davidson, VMI exacted an amount of revenge on the Wildcats with a stunning 66-60 win in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Mountain Dew Southern Conference Basketball Championships at the North Charleston Coliseum.
VMI is the fifth seed from the North Division while Davidson was the number one North seed.
VMI (10-19), which posted a 61-60 win over Davidson in Lexington, Va., back on Jan. 21 before closing its season with the embarrassing 35-point loss at Davidson on March 1, beat the Wildcats with a solid display of shooting. The Keydets converted on 26 of 50 field goal attempts for 52 percent while holding Davidson (17-10) to 19 of 56 shooting from the floor (33.9%).
Radee Skipworth scored 36 points, making 14 of 19 shots from the floor, in leading VMI into the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament for the first time since 1996. This is VMI's final season in the Southern Conference before leaving for the Big South Conference next year.
Davidson jumped out to early leads of 8-2 and 11-6 before VMI ran off nine straight points to take a 15-11 lead with 11:22 to play in the first half. The lead changed hands three times in the first half as VMI scored 22 of its 28 points inside the paint. Davidson scored just two of its 27 first half points inside. VMI closed the half with a 28-27 lead as Tadas Mankevicius slammed home a basket at the buzzer.
VMI opened the second half with a Zach Batte dunk to take a 30-27 lead. The Keydets would outscore Davidson 14-4 over the first six minutes of the second half to take a 42-31 lead with 13:57 remaining. Davidson was never able to get closer than two points in the final 19 minutes of the game.
Davidson was led Wayne Bernard who scored 19 points and Peter Anderer who added 14. Skipworth was the lone Keydet to score in double figures. Preston Beverly led VMI with 10 rebounds while Bernard led the Wildcats with seven.
Rand played the entire 40 minutes at both point and shooting guard and finished with nine assists.
The Keydets limited Davidson to 22% from 3-point range in the second half while shooting 61.9% from the floor after intermission. VMI also equaled Davidson on the boards at 35-35 after being outrebounded 50-27 in last Saturday night's loss to the Wildcats.
VMI advances to Friday's semifinal game where it will meet Chattanooga at approximately 8:30 p.m.
VMI head coach Bart Bellairs:
"We were very fortunate to beat a well-coached Davidson squad. Tonight I thought we would either win a close one or struggle with our confidence. The key tonight is we handled the boards. At Davidson last week, they killed us. But tonight we played good defense. It was a good effort.
This is a new season. Life should be about that. Faith gives us new opportunities. This team is still practicing like they don't know what their record is. There is new hope right now.
"Since the Davidson loss (on March 1 by an 84-49 score), we saw where we made our mistakes and we had opportunities in the first 10 minutes of the game. It wasn't about strategy, it was about discipline. Now I'm a run-and-gun guy but they've bought into this new scheme of controlling the tempo.
ON THE LOSS OF JASON CONLEY
"We knew we had Radee (Skipworth) who can create his own shot so now we run a flex offense where we score off the pass. We have one of the best assist to turnover ratio guys in the country (in Richard Little).
ON HIS DEFENSE
"Our kids decided with our new style of play that we have to emphasize defense. There's a lid on it at tournament time. We have to win on the defensive end and rebound the basketball.
Radee Skipworth
"We have one of the most enthusiastic point guards in the conference in Richard Little. He's always in our ear like a little pit bull.
"Coach preaches to me about shot selection and to slow it down. This offense gives me great looks.
"I took it upon myself to help keep the team focused. We have other options on this team. Other guys are stepping up and we knew we were going to get somebody because we've been close in so many games.
Ben Rand
"I had a lull in the middle of the season and Coach ran me pretty hard and kept me focused. When things go bad, he didn't let up.
"We've been through a lot. With regards to depth, several guys have come and gone and another guy left us hanging. But we waited and waited. We took two steps back after Davidson blasted us but tonight when we got down to three minutes left, where we might used to say `oh no,' it was Davidson that we felt would be tight.
Davidson head coach Bob McKillop:
"I want to congratulate Bart Bellairs and VMI. They played outstanding defense, and they executed their offense to perfection. Radee Skipworth was senstational.
"I also want to congratulate our players. It's been an unparalleled joy to coach them this year. I hurt very deeply now for them, to see a group that embraced a dream and committed themselves to pursue it from last March to this moment. And to see them not rewarded is a very difficult thing.
ON FACING VMI FOR THE SECOND TIME IN FIVE DAYS
"It appeared that we were a little tight after facing them just a few days ago. We were still aware of what they had done to us several weeks ago in Lexington when they beat us (61-60) in almost the same fashion. That was a wake-up call so beating them the other night created a volatile mixture. I think it probably inspired them.
HOW DO YOU OVERCOME A POOR SHOOTING NIGHT?
"We had to generate points off our defense, and we didn't. That's been our Achilles heel this year. I think that was a much a credit to VMI as anything. We couldn't get any run-out, easy baskets. They had us on our heels early and made us defend 25 to 30 seconds on every possession.
"We were close to leading the country in free throw shooting and I thought if we made our free throws early we probably could have gotten some separation and a double digit lead, and what does that do to VMI's game plan? We just didn't score many easy points."
