BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - VMI's impressive week of basketball came to a sudden halt in the second-half Saturday night in Birmingham, Alabama.
Jakob Sigurdarson scored a game-high 17 points in his final regular season appearance at Bill Battle Coliseum to lead Birmingham-Southern to a 60-48 comeback victory over VMI in front of 1,907 fans Saturday.
BSC outscored the Keydets 21-3 over the final 8:44 to improve to 14-12 overall, 6-8 Big South. James Collins added 12 points and Augustinas Vitas had 10 points and eight rebounds or the Panthers, who swept VMI in the season series.
Reggie Williams and Matt Coward scored 12 points apiece for VMI, 8-17, 2-12, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.
VMI grabbed a 13-12 lead with 11:10 to go in the first half, led 32-26 at halftime and led by as many as eight in the second half. The Keydets led 45-39 with 8:44 to play on a layup by Coward. But the Panthers held VMI to just one field goal the rest of the way as Sigurdarson helped direct the BSC comeback.
Sigurdarson scored four straight points to slice the lead to two, and after a Coward free throw, Vitas cut it to one at 46-45 with 5:04 left. Then following a Keydet turnover Collins drove to the basket for a layup and converted a 3-point play to give the Panthers a 48-46 lead.
Sigurdarson added a layup and two free throws, and Bucky McMillan hit a driving layup with 1:24 left that put BSC on top 55-46.
The Panthers finished 17-of-21 from the free throw line for 81 percent, which brings their total at the charity stripe to 45-for-56 over the last two contests.
After shooting just 32 percent in the first period, BSC made 50 percent of its shots in the second to finish at 39.6 percent (19-of-48) for the game. Meanwhile, VMI shot a blistering 66.7 percent in the first, but hit just 7-of-26 for 27 percent in the second for a total of 43.2 (19-of-44).
With the win, BSC secured a spot in the upcoming Advance Auto Parts Big South Tournament March 1-5, while VMI was eliminated from tournament play.
The Keydets close out the regular season with a two-game home stand beginning next Wednesday against Winthrop. Tip-off at Cameron Hall will be 7:00 p.m.
