LEXINGTON, Va. - Senior forward Curtis Rice dropped in 18 points and led four Charleston Southern players in double figures scoring as the Buccaneers topped VMI, 78-67, in Big South action Saturday afternoon at Cameron Hall in Lexington.
CSU (5-7, 2-0) won its second consecutive road conference game and fourth victory over the last five contests. VMI fell to 5-6, 0-1, and dropped its fourth straight game.
Junior guard Terrell Brown tallied 14 points with six assists for the Bucs, and sophomore guard Donnell Covington added 13 points on five of six shooting and hit all three 3-point shots. Senior center Nathan Ball scored 12 points for CSU.
The Keydets fell despite senior center Tim Allmond's career-high 17 points with eight rebounds. Allmond hit 8 of 11 shots from the field. Junior guard Levar Joseph, who missed five straight games with strained knee ligaments, hit three triples and finished with 13 points while freshman forward Reggie Williams scored 11 points.
The first half saw eight lead changes and eight ties before Rice nailed a 3-pointer with 1:35 left, keying an 8-0 Charleston Southern scoring run before halftime.
The Bucs extended their 35-28 halftime lead by opening the second half on a 5-0 spurt capped by a Terrell Brown steal and fastbreak layup which pushed the CSU lead to 40-28 with 18:28 left in regulation.
The Keydets trailed by as many as 15 points (59-44) at the 10:40 mark, but closed within seven points, 67-60, when Sam Mielnik canned two free throws with 3:10 remaining.
That would be as close as VMI would get the rest of the afternoon as the Bucs answered with a 12-1 run over the next 2:15 to take control. CSU also hit eight of nine free throws over the last 2:10 of regulation, including five by Harris and four by Brown to slam the door.
CSU hit 47.5% from the field (29-61) but drained 7 of 14 beyond the arc for 50%. The Bucs also outrebounded the Keydets, 35-31.
Charleston Southern generated 16 VMI turnovers into 20 points, 15 coming in the second half, and outscored the Keydets in second chance opportunities, 17-8. The Bucs also excelled in taking care of the ball in crunch-time, committing just two turnovers over the last 14-plus minutes of regulation.
The Keydets connected on 15-18 free throw shots for 83.3% but went four of 13 in 3-point shooting.
The game started three hours late when no officials arrived at Cameron Hall for the scheduled 1:00 p.m. start.
VMI continues the two-game homestand Monday night at Cameron Hall against Coastal Carolina. Tipoff will be 7:00 and the acrobatic dunk performing group "The Extreme Team" will perform at halftime. Charleston Southern travels to Radford Monday for a 7:00 p.m. showdown at the Dedmon Center.
VMI HEAD COACH BART BELLAIRS - We had some bad turnovers again, and it was not coming from just one person. We've got to make the easy play and work on that. The only great run we had was when we got into our press real quick, and then they beat it a little bit in the second half with a lot of energy. We had 16 turnovers, but some of them were so unforced and I thought a couple of guys just looked out of sync today. Give Charleston Southern credit. They played very well and we didn't play as well as we need to. We've got to hold people defensively a little bit better - they shot 47% from the field and got some easy looks. Levar (Joesph) got back and had a pretty good shooting day, but we didn't have enough consistency in the lineup."
