VMI Basketball Wins Fourth Straight With 105-59 Victory Over Southern Virginia

Men's Basketball VMIKeydets.com

VMI Basketball Wins Fourth Straight With 105-59 Victory Over Southern Virginia

LEXINGTON, Va. ? Sophomore forward Reggie Williams scored a career-high 29 points and freshman guard Travis Holmes added a career-high 16 points as VMI thumped Southern Virginia, 105-59, before 2,145 spectators Saturday afternoon at Cameron Hall.

VMI (4-4) won its fourth straight game after dropping its first four games of the season. It was the Keydets' first four-game win streak since 1998-99 when VMI as a member of the Southern Conference defeated Georgia Southern, Wofford, and Western Carolina twice.

VMI shot a season-high 57.6% for the game (38-66) and knocked down 11 of 24 shots beyond the arc. The Keydets also continued their strong free throw shooting for the second straight game and hit 18 of 23 from the stripe for 78.3%.

Williams hit 11-16 shots from the floor including four of four in 3-point shooting. He also hit all three free throw attempts and pulled down five rebounds.

Freshman guard Dusty Pflugner added 12 points for the Keydets and was four of five from the field.

VMI led 21-19 following SVU's 3-pointer by Cameron Gentry with 12:27 left in the first half, but the Keydets put together a 23-6 run over the next nine minutes, pushing the lead to 44-25 on a Williams fast break dunk that capped a 9-0 run at the 3:29 mark. VMI twice led by as many as 21 points in the first half and led 54-36 at the break.

Southern Virginia scored the first five points of the second half and pulled within 54-43 when Nathaniel Mann made a layup at the 16:19 mark, but that would be as close as the Knights would come. The Keydets quickly responded with a 9-0 run on a Matt Murrer layup, a Williams 3-pointer, and a Travis Holmes layup to push the lead back to 20 points. The Keydets were never threatened the rest of the way and led by as many as 47 points in the second half.

The Knights were limited to 32.8% shooting (22-67) and were led by their only double figures scorer, Brett Schroeder, with 10 points.

Murrer led VMI on the boards with a career-high 13 rebounds.

The Keydets' 46-point win was the largest margin of victory since an 85-38 win over Warren Wilson on November 20, 1999.

VMI will break for exams and will resume action at Towson on Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m.

VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom- “I'm proud of the guys. You always worry about these games coming out with a lack of intensity. I didn't think we did as well as we should have against Ferrum Monday night. But they made believers of me today. I was really pleased with the guys the way they finished up the last three minutes. Craig McCargo knocked down some shots and he can score, and he showed a little of that today. Dusty Pflugner gave us some great minutes at the point and he scored 12 and gave Chavis (Holmes) a little break. We didn't know it in warm-ups, but Sean Christiansen (point guard) came up limp. He's had a quadriceps bruise he suffered at Army. We had a shoot-around this morning and he was fine. But it tightened up on him after shoot-around, so we started him and immediately got him out. He'll be back. We have some guys nicked up a bit, but we have 11 days to get healthy. First and foremost, we'll concentrate on the books now and get those grades in order and then practice some and get ready for Towson.”


Print Friendly Version