LEXINGTON, Va. - Freshman D.J. Covington had 13 points and tied a school record with nine blocks, while Keith Gabriel went over the 1,000 career point plateau and the VMI Keydets went to 5-0 for the first time in the modern era by defeating the Southern Virginia Knights 94-78 Tuesday night at Cameron Hall in Lexington, Va.

VMI's 5-0 start is the program's best in the modern era, as the Keydets had not accomplished that feat since the 1921-22 season. The Keydets will take on last year's national semifinalist West Virginia on Saturday afternoon, bidding for a 6-0 opening to the season.

On this night, however, Covington's nine blocks tied Eric Mann's nine rejections against The Citadel on Jan. 15, 2000. Only one other Keydet had ever posted more than six rejections in a single contest. Covington also had nine points and nine rebounds, missing a triple-double by just one of each statistic.

Gabriel started the contest 0 for 5, but finally hit the needed three-pointer at the 8:47 mark, becoming the 34th player in Keydet history, and second active VMI player, to surpass the 1,000-point plateau.

The score was tied at seven early, after sophomore Stan Okoye hit a runner in the lane. Following an Okoye free-throw, to give the Keydets an 8-7 lead, senior Austin Kenon hit his first triple of the night to give the Keydets an 11-7 lead at the 15:48 mark.

Nick Gore and Ron Burks hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the home team a 17-7 lead, the latter coming at the 14:27 mark. VMI then went cold moments later, however, after taking a 21-11 lead at the 12:51 mark. The Keydets went nearly four minutes without scoring a point, as the Knights climbed within seven points of the lead until a lay-in by Covington at the 8:58 snapped the drought. That set up Gabriel for his historic three just 11 seconds later.

After surrendering 13 points to SVU in the first 8:10 of play, the Keydets would go on allow only 12 points the rest of the half. The home squad outscored the Knights 34-12 along the way and took a 55-25 advantage into the locker room. Three Keydets were in double figures at the break for VMI, as Gore and Kenon led VMI with 12, while Okoye added 11 points and six boards.

Casey Nye led SVU into the half with six points, while DeWayne Beamon added four off the bench as the Knights were held to only 30.3 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from 3-point land.

After ending the first half in an offensive slump, SVU came out of the blocks firing, scoring 11 unanswered points from the 18:40 mark to the 16:45 mark to trim the VMI lead to 24 points. That was just the start of the Knights' hot streak, as they blistered the nets for a 47.5% FG percentage effort in the second half, including a stunning 10 of 13 effort from three-point range.

That hot shooting got SVU as close as 14, when Anderson Jacobs converted three free throws with 3:49 left. The Keydets responded with an 8-0 run, pushing the lead back to 93-71 with 2:21 left and finally sealing the victory.

In addition to the major events of the evening, junior Michael Sparks tied a career-high with eight rebounds, while Okoye narrowly missed his fourth double-double of the season as he finished with 17 points and nine boards.

Southern Virginia was led by Anders Jacobson, who posted 25 points in the losing effort, as the Knights fell to 2-5 on the season.

VMI returns to action on Sat., Nov. 27 as the Keydets will take on West Virginia in Charleston, W. Va. Tip time is slated for 7 p.m. at the Charleston Civic Center.

Quotes - VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom

"They're a good enough shooting team that when they get going, crazy things can happen. They were 10-12 from three, and we struggled."
 
"Credit them. Their coach did a great job with them, and when you're down 30, you can afford to play loose, and we didn't respond the right way. We certainly didn't win the second-half, which has been our mantra this whole year, and we got beat by 14 in the second-half tonight."
 
"Thank goodness we had that lead. We couldn't make a shot, period, early in that second-half. It was just a culmination of bad on bad in the second half and it was an embarrassment."
 
"D.J. played well tonight. Pretty close to a triple-double, that's close to as good as it gets. He and Stan each played with a great motor and great energy, and was solid throughout. Ron Burks played hard, but didn't make shots. D.J. played his best game by far, and Stan was a board away from his fourth double-double."