LEXINGTON, Va. - Senior forward Radee Skipworth (Hershey, Pa.)scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds and senior guard Richard Little (Ft. Washington, Md.) dished out eight assists to lead VMI over Radford, 69-58, Thursday night at Cameron Hall in Lexington.
VMI (3-9, 1-1) secured its first ever Big South Conference win and snapped a four game-losing streak.
Trailing 33-29 at halftime, the Keydets rallied by shooting a season-high 60% in the second half - hitting 15 of 25 shots from the floor. VMI raced to a 11-4 run in the opening minutes after intermission and led 40-37 following a free throw by Matt Coward with 15:55 left. The Highlanders rallied to retake the lead on a jumper by Whit Holcomb-Faye and a layup by Chris Oliver, but the Keydets took the lead for good at the 15:28 mark when Matt Murrer hit a layup to put VMI up, 42-41.
Joining Skipworth in double figures were Tadas Mankevicius (10 pts, 7 rebs.), Sam Mielnik (10 pts, career-high eight rebounds), and Little (10 pts.).
Holcomb-Faye paced Radford (4-8, 0-2) with 15 points and Aaron Gill added 10 points.
The Highlanders shot 46.7% from the floor in the first half, but cooled down to 26.5% in the second half - converting just nine of 34 shots.
The teams, meeting for the 18th time overall but the first in eight years, opened the game with an array of scoring runs. Radford led 11-5 on a Olumuyiwa Poopoola layp at the 15:27 mark of the opening half, but VMI countered with 17 unanswered points over the next five minutes to assume a 22-11 advantage at the midway point of the half. The Highlanders responded with a 13-0 streak that was capped by a Holcomb-Faye layup push Radford back ahead, 24-22, with 3:53 left in the half.
VMI's biggest lead of the game was 14 points when Skipworth nailed two free throws to make it 62-48 with 5:09 left in regulation. The Highlanders closed within seven (64-57) at the 1:19 mark when Chris Goodin canned a three-pointer, but came no closer as the Keydets hit five of six free throws down the stretch.
"I was really pleased with the effort and the attitude of our guys," said VMI head coach Bart Bellairs. "I was really nervous about Radford. They are very athletic, but I thought our guys fought hard for us and that was really big for us."
"I really thought our defense was very good. I thought our guys did a tremendous job of settling down on offense. We had a some turnovers that could have gotten in the way, but our leadership settled in and we got some great looks at the basket. This team has been through a whole lot already, and we're getting better and better."
VMI is playing its first year in the Big South Conference after a 79-year run in the Southern Conference.
The teams will face each other again Feb. 4 at the Dedmon Center in Radford.
VMI faces Winthrop Saturday at Rock Hill, S.C at 4:00 p.m. Radford will host UNC Asheville at 7:00 p.m. Saturday night.
