LEXINGTON, Va. - Senior guard James Collins scored 25 points and senior forward Sredrick Powe added 12 points and 13 rebounds to lead Birmingham-Southern College over VMI, 74-59 Saturday afternoon at Cameron Hall.
The Panthers, who entered the game tied for the nation's fourth longest win streak, won their ninth game in a row and fourth straight on the road in raising their overall record to 16-5 overall and 9-1 in the Big South. BSC also won its sixth game against VMI, taking all games in the series that began in 2003-04.
Birmingham-Southern also grabbed sole possession of first place in the Big South Conference as Coastal Carolina handed Winthrop its second league loss with a 64-50 victory in Conway, S.C. Saturday afternoon.
VMI dropped its sixth straight game and fell to 7-14, 2-8 BSC.
Taking a page from their 75-53 win over VMI in Birmingham Jan. 18 when they hit 14 three-pointers, the Panthers nailed another 14 treys in 32 attempts Saturday to go 44% beyond the arc for the game. Collins led the barrage with six 3-pointers in 12 attempts while junior guard Bucky McMillan canned three treys.
VMI committed 18 turnovers for the game and was hampered by inconsistent shooting. The Keydets hit 12-of-21 shots from the floor in the first half for 57.1%, but cooled down to 31.8% after halftime, connecting on just seven-of-22 shots.
Sophomore forward Reggie Williams led VMI in scoring with 18 points and junior forward Matt Murrer and senior forward Preston Beverly each scored 10 points.
Leading 50-44 with 13:12 left, the Panthers augmented their lead with a 14-5 run over the next 6:30 to assume a 64-49 advantage following a Collins three-pointer. Another Collins trey at the five-minute mark gave the Panthers a 16-point cushion, their biggest lead of the game.
BSC outrebounded VMI, 33-25, and Powe's 13 rebounds were a career-high. Powe also added a game-high six assists.
VMI travels to Winthrop Wednesday night to face the Eagles at 7:00 p.m. Birmingham-Southern continues its road swing Monday night at Radford (7:00 EST).
VMI head coach Duggar Baucom - "Turnovers hurt us again, especially early on. That's not good and it has to get better. Everyone is taking more shots than us. They took 11 more today, Liberty took 16 more Thursday night and against Winthrop (Monday), they took 26 more shots. It's all based on turnovers or offensive rebounds. Birmingham-Southern got active in the second-half on the glass, too. I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half. I think they had four offensive rebounds and turned three into baskets in the first half, but they had seven in the second half. We just had two many mental lapses. You can't keep making the mistake you made two nights earlier. We have to grow up a little bit as far as that goes."
