LEXINGTON, Va. - Freshman guard Fred Robinson (Alexandria, Va.) drained a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left to rally VMI past Charleston Southern, 53-50, in Big South Conference action Wednesday night at Cameron Hall.
The win snapped a five-game VMI losing streak and gave the Keydets a 4-14, 2-6 mark. Charleston Southern, which fell at Radford in the last seconds two nights ago, dropped its eighth straight game and slipped to 3-16, 0-8.
Buccaneer guard Ed O'Neil hit a jumper to put CSU up 50-48, with :25 left. But the Keydets took the lead for good when Robinson nailed a 21-footer from the right wing ten seconds later. It was the fourth trey in eight attempts for Robinson, who finished with 14 points.
"Fred was confident and I looked in his eyes and told him at the timeout ' If you get it, you take it,", said VMI coach Bart Bellairs."We ran a fade screen and that's what the play was designed for. We knew we didn't have to have the three, but if we had it open, we were going to take it, and Fred felt it. That's what a shooter is."
Charleston Southern missed a chance to answer in the final seconds when O'Neils runner failed to drop and Keydet forward Radee Skipworth rebounded with 4.5 seconds left. Skipworth converted both ends of the one-and-one, and O'Neil's desperation shot from half court to tie the game clanked off the iron as the buzzer sounded.
Skipworth finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the year. Robinson's 14 points was second only to his 15-point effort against Binghamton in the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks in November.
Kurtis Rice led Charleston Southern with 16 points and nine rebounds, but fouled out with 1:28 left. O'Neil added 12 points for the Bucs.
CSU led 23-20 at the break and led 40-34 when O'Neil canned a jumper with 8:33 remaining. VMI countered with an 8-0 run - capping the run and taking its first lead of the night on a banked 3-pointer by Richard Little at the 5:22 mark. But CSU battled back to tie the score at 48-48 on a 3-point play by Terrell Drafts with 1:18 remaining in regulation.
VMI, which shot a season-low 23% in Monday night's 49-32 loss to Coastal Carolina, hit 11 of 23 shots in the second half (47.8%) and finished the game 41.5% from the field. The Keydets held the Bucs to 40% shooting for the game, including 2 of 14 from 3-point range.
The Keydets shot six of 17 beyond the arc, their most 3-point goals in a game since six were canned against Winthrop on Jan. 10.
VMI will entertain Winthrop Saturday at Cameron Hall at 1 p.m. Charleston Southern plays Birmingham-Southern in North Charleston Monday night at 7:00 p.m.
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