ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Senior forward
Reggie Williams scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and junior guard
Chavis Holmes added 21 points and eight rebounds as VMI rolled to a 97-75 win over UNC Asheville before a sold-out Justice Center Saturday night.
VMI won its third straight game and evened its Big South mark to 5-5 while improving to 13-11 overall. UNCA, which started the night in first place in the league standings, dropped its third straight and fell to 18-7, 7-3 BSC, and lost for only the second time in 14 home games at Justice Center this season.
The Keydets shot 65.6% (21-32) in the second half after going 38.1% in the opening half.
Junior forward
Willie Bell scored 13 first half points and finished with 19 points and seven rebounds for the Keydets and junior guard
Travis Holmes added 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Bulldogs jumped to a 6-0 lead but the advantage didn't last long as a Wille Bell layup at the 15:49 mark out gave VMI its first lead (10-8) and an
Adam Lonon jumper 38 seconds later put VMI up for good, 12-11. The bucket started a 10-0 spurt by the Keydets and VMI later pushed the margin into double-digits, taking a 42-25 lead on a
Christian Hunter 3-pointer that gave the Keydets their largest advantage of the first half.
VMI led 42-29 at halftime and extended its lead to 23 points (70-47) on a
Chavis Holmes jumper with 10:22 left.
But the Bulldogs, who had been outrebounded 24-17 in the first half, flexed their muscle inside and capitalized on second chance scoring opportunities to trim the deficit to 14 points (70-56) on a pair of Reid Augst free throws with 8:07 left, capping a 9-0 run.
The Keydets never allowed the Bulldogs any closer as
Reggie Williams stopped the run with a 14-foot pull-up jumper that banked in from the right side, and Lonon converted a lay-up off a Williams feed, one of his seven assists on the night, on the ensuing possession that put VMI back on stride.
VMI went for the knock-out punch pushing the lead to over 20 points for the last six minutes of regulation. A Williams dunk with 2:29 gave VMI its largest cushion of the night (29 points) when the Keydets led 92-63.
Sophomore guard/forward Sean Smith scored 23 points for the Bulldogs hitting 10 of 17 shots from the floor. Senior forward Vincent James added 13 points and seven rebounds and red-shirt freshman forward James Williamsd added 12 points.
7-7 senior forward Kenny George, who broke VMI hearts with a basket in overtime to lead UNCA to a 90-87 win at Cameron Hall January 19, played just four minutes and finished with four points.
The Bulldog senior backcourt tandem of Bryan Smithson and K.J. Garland, who averaged 17.1 and 14.5 points per game respectively heading into the contest, labored through a combined 3 for 18 shooting night from the field and were both held to single digits. Smithson scored seven points while Garland managed two points to go with six assists.
VMI won its third straight in conference play for the first time since a four game win streak in Southern Conference action from January 11-23, 1999. VMI also secured back-to-back seasons with at least 13 wins since the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons.
It was also VMI's second straight win at the Justice Center after dropping three straight.
VMI returns home Wednesday to face another first-place team in back-to-back games as it entertains Winthrop, a winner Saturday night over Radford, at 7:00 p.m. at Cameron Hall. UNC Asheville hits the road again to play Radford Wednesday night at the Dedmon Center at 7:00 p.m.
VMI HEAD COACH DUGGAR BAUCOM- "I am very proud of them. I told them at halftime that we just had to go out and win the second half -and we won it by nine and shot it well again. We thought the last two minutes of the first half that our ball movement wasn't that great. We didn't score the last 2:20. Second half, we really moved the ball -dribble, handoff, drive and pitch, find the open guy. Willie comes off a hand-off and gets a dunk. We really had them spread out. If we can do that, good things will happen. We made a few shots, too. 13 threes, that certainly helps. The kids just played. They were so resilient. They hit us and cut it to 14, and we got it back to 20 and when we did, we hit a three from each side to get it to 26. We forced 16 turnovers and got a lot of points off those. I thought we did an awesome job on the offensive boards that led to second chance points."
UNCAdrops third straight (VMI-UNC Asheville basketball game story) Citizen-Times, February 17, 2008)
