LEXINGTON, Va. - The VMI basketball team will complete its 15-game 2019-20 home schedule Wednesday night when it faces Chattanooga at Cameron Hall at 7 pm. The Keydets look to rebound from last Saturday's tough setback to UNCG, 71-68, on Senior Day in Lexington. VMI and Chattanooga will be playing for the second time in 14 days after the teams squared off Feb. 12 in Chattanooga with the Mocs prevailing, 86-67. The Keydets enter the final week of the SoCon regular season tied with Samford for eighth place with a 3-13 league mark. VMI and Samford will close out the regular season Saturday afternoon in Birmingham. Chattanooga enters Wednesday's game tied with Wofford with an 8-8 mark and is vying with the Terriers as well as Western Carolina and Mercer for a top-six seed and first round bye in the SoCon tournament which gets underway March 6 in Asheville.  Wednesday's game will be carried on ESPN+.
 
Last Time Out: UNCG 71, VMI 68 - Feb. 22, 2020 - Lexington, Va.
Looking for a second straight SoCon victory on Senior Day, the VMI basketball team fell by a close 71-68 score to visiting UNCG Saturday afternoon at Cameron Hall. VMI (8-21, 3-13) led by a slim 38-35 margin at the half and led by as many as 11 with 8:26 left in the game but the Spartans (23-6, 13-3) caught a second wind and pushed ahead in the closing moments to pull out the come-from-behind victory over the Keydets.  With the three-point loss, VMI has now lost seven games this season by three or fewer points. Freshman Travis Evee led the Keydets with 16 points on the afternoon while senior Garrett Gilkeson and freshman Sean Conway both scored 13. Evee finished 5-12 shooting for the day including three treys. Freshman KamdynCurfman, who finished with nine points, also poured in three treys while Conway scored nine of his 13 points from three-point range. UNCG's Isaiah Miller was instrumental in leading the comeback for the Spartans as he finished with 23 points on 8-20 shooting and one three-pointer. Angelo Allegri scored 11 and Kyrin Galloway came away with a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Last Meeting with the Mocs: Chattanooga 87, VMI 68 - Feb. 12, 2020 - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Junior forward Ramon Vila scored 23 points to lead Chattanooga to an 86-67 win over VMI at McKenzie Arena. Vila hit 9-of-10 shots from the floor and converted 5-of-6 from the line to extend his double figures scoring streak to 10 straight games. The Keydets placed three in double figures scoring and were led by freshman guard Kamdyn Curfman with 13 points. Sophomore guard Connor Arnold dropped in 11 second half points that included a trio of threes while freshman guard Travis Evee chipped in 10 points. Chattanooga led for nearly 38 minutes of the contest and was nearly flawless at the free throw line draining 23 of 24 attempts while controlling the glass with a 39-25 advantage in rebounding. VMI trailed by just a 30-26 count with over three minutes left in the first half before the Mocs closed out the period with a 9-0 burst to take a 13-point lead at the break. UTC outrebounded VMI 22-11 in the opponent half which included seven offensive rebounds that led to 11 second chance points. The Keydets responded by opening the second half with six straight points and trimmed the deficit to 39-32 following a Curfman layup with 17:39 left. The Mocs then embarked on a 21-5 run over the next 6:49 of regulation to break the game open and took their biggest lead of 23 points (76-53) with 4:45 remaining. Joining Vila in double figures scoring were graduate transfer guard Matt Ryan (17 points), guard David Jean-Baptiste (11 points) and forward Stefan Kenic (10 points). VMI was 11-of-29 from beyond the arc.
 
A win over Chattanooga would:
--- Give VMI its fourth conference win of the year, matching last year's total
--- End a three-game slide against the Mocs
 
SERIES HISTORY
VMI vs. Chattanooga
This will be the 60th meeting between the teams that first met in 1978. Chattanooga leads the overall series, 45-14, and took both meetings last year – 83-65 in Chattanooga and 71-70 in Lexington. The Mocs also claimed the first meeting this season in Chattanooga on Feb. 12, 86-67.
 
THREE-BALL REPORT
VMI continued to drain three-point shots at a high rate by pouring in double figures beyond the arc in the last four of the last five  games. The Keydets hit 14 three's against UNCG last Saturday after posting 13 threes in the 74-71 win at  Western Carolina Feb. 19. The Keydets are third in the nation in 3-pointers made per game with a 10.8 listing. VMI also hit 16 shots from beyond the arc in the January 4 game against Samford for their most against a Division I opponent this season. VMI has hit 10+ threes in 15 total games this season.
 
ANOTHER CLOSE ONE
Saturday's 71-68 setback to UNCG on the heels of VMI's 74-71 win at Western Carolina Feb. 19 moved VMI to 2-8 in games settled by five points or less this season. VMI in January suffered back-to-back losses by a total of five points against Mercer and Furman. VMI also took three losses by a combined six points over its first five games of the season before breaking through with an 89-84 double-overtime win November 17 vs. UC Davis in the Red Wolves Classic.