VMI Basketball wraps up the month of December Saturday afternoon in Birmingham, Alabama at Samford in Southern Conference action. The Keydets will be searching for their first conference win of the season after closing out non-conference play with a win over North Alabama, 89-68, Dec. 21 at Cameron Hall. The Keydets and Bulldogs tip at 3 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on ESPN3.

Last Time Out: VMI 89, North Alabama 68 - Friday, Dec. 21
Sophomores Sarju Patel and Myles Lewis each posted career-high point totals Dec. 21 as the VMI men's basketball team defeated the University of North Alabama 89-68 in non-conference play. Patel netted 19 points, hitting 4-of-7 from three-point range and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe to go with six rebounds. Lewis poured in 18 points, sinking nine of his 14 field-goal attempts with six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Lewis' previous high mark was 15 earlier this season at Stetson, while Patel had 13 in early December this year at Virginia Tech.
Fellow sophomore Bubba Parham set the tone early with 23 points in the first half to push the Keydets to a 52-25 lead at intermission. The Lions chipped away at the advantage to trail by just 12 (69-57) with 6:50 remaining.
VMI used a 13-4 run to put the game out of reach. Parham concluded the evening with a game-high 29 points, nailing six three-pointers. Tyler Creammer finished just shy of a double-double, with nine points and nine rebounds. Jake Stephens had eight points and six boards and Greg Parham snared seven rebounds and handed out five assists with two steals. Kendall Stafford led North Alabama (3-10) with 16 points and six rebounds. Jamari Blackmon posted 15 points and Christian Agnew netted 13 with five boards.

Last Meeting with Samford: Feb. 23, 2018
The VMI basketball team fell short in its second-half rally as Samford left Cameron Hall with an 89-82 victory on Feb. 23, 2018. The Keydets (8-20, 3-14) trailed by six, 44-38, at the half and kept pace with the Bulldogs (10-20, 6-11) in the second half but could not get closer than a four-point deficit in the final 20 minutes. VMI earned nearly equal numbers to Samford in points in the paint, points off turnovers and second-chance points but could not compete with eight Bulldog fast break points and 25 points off the bench to VMI's 18. Samford had six players finish in double figures in the win, its second on the road this season. In the Bulldogs' win over VMI at Samford, five finished with more than 10 points. VMI was led by junior Austin Vereen who scored 21 points on 6-11 shooting and went a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe. Freshman Bubba Parham finished with 19 points with six buckets including three treys while Tyler Creammer and Myles Lewis both ended up with 13 points. The Bulldogs were led by Demetrius Denzel-Dyson and Josh Sharkey, who both finished with 16 points. Alex Thompson came up with 14 points while Eric Adams (13), Triston Chambers (11) and Justin Coleman (10) rounded out the double digit scorers.

A win over Samford would ...
-- Be VMI's first SoCon win of the season.
-- Give VMI's first win at Samford since December 4, 2014 (88-66)

SERIES HISTORY – VMI vs. Samford
This will be 13th meeting between the schools that first met in 1967. Samford leads the series 10-2 and has taken seven straight in the series including a 93-79 win in Birmingham and 89-82 victory in Lexington last year. VMI's last win in the series came on January 21, 2016 (83-76).

SO LONG DECEMBER
The Keydets close out the 2018 calendar year by resuming Southern Conference play on the road. Saturday's game at Samford will be the first of 17 straight conference games to close out the regular season as VMI has completed its non-conference 2018-19 play. The Samford game Saturday is VMI's lone road game in a five-game stretch that concludes January 12.

BUBBA STILL ON TOP
Through games of December 26, sophomore guard Bubba Parham continues to lead the SoCon in scoring with a 22.1 PPG average. Parham entered December with four straight 30+ point games, and became the first SoCon player to tally 30 or more points in four straight contests since Steph Curry of Davidson in 2008-09. Not just a scorer, Parham also garnered a career-high nine rebounds with a 30-point outing in VMI's win 87-79 OT win at Stetson. Parham started his blistering four-game scoring stretch when he scored a career-high 35 points and knocked down a school record 10 3-pointers in the 92-82 loss at #10 ranked Kentucky Nov. 18. It was the first time Parham had surpassed the 30+ point plateau in a game in his career and he followed it up two nights later with 33 points against Kentucky Christian at Cameron Hall. Parham, the 2018 SoCon Freshman of the Year as selected by the media, has 13 games of 20+ points in his career following his 29 point outing vs. North Alabama Dec. 21.

PATEL, LEWIS SET CAREER MARKS
Sophomore forwards Sarju Patel and Myles Lewis posted career-highs in VMI's 89-68 win over North Alabama Dec. 21. Patel scored a career-high 19 points and hit a career-best four 3-pointers against the Lions. Lewis scored 18 points against UNA for his seventh double-digit scoring game of the year.