Box Score
LEXINGTON, Va. – Senior center
Jake Stephens scored 28 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and added six blocked shots Saturday as the VMI men's basketball team won an exciting 64-61 non-conference game against visiting Gardner-Webb University.
Coming into the contest Stephens needed 20 points to become the 43
rd player to join the Keydet 1,000-point club and he now sits at 1,008.
Cameron Hall, the home of VMI basketball the past four decades, hosted a special ceremony to commemorate the 40
th anniversary of the first game during halftime of Saturday's game.
The Keydets trailed 59-58 with 42 seconds left before Stephens scored a layup to give VMI the lead. D'Maurian Williams sunk two free throws on the other end, but Stephens again countered with a score in the paint to put VMI ahead 62-61 with 11 seconds remaining. Following a Keydet defensive stop,
Sean Conway cleared the defensive glass and was fouled with two seconds left. He buried both free throws and a desperation GWU three-pointer didn't connect.
Stephens tied career highs with his 16 rebounds and six blocks on the afternoon.
Kamdyn Curfman had 13 points and Conway scored nine with five rebounds.
Louis Tang added seven points.
Lance Terry scored a team-best 16 points for the Runnin' Bulldogs (4-6) with seven boards. D'Maurian Williams had 15 points and five rebounds and Ludovic Dufeal corralled a team-high 15 rebounds in 18 minutes of play.
The VMI defense forced Gardner-Webb into 0-9 shooting from three-point range in the second half and just 26 percent (9-35) from the floor in that span. The Keydets led 36-34 at intermission and led by eight (48-40) with 12:48 on the game clock. GWU had its biggest second-half lead of 58-52 with 3:38 remaining.
VMI (7-4) travels to Wake Forest University (8-1) Tuesday at 7 p.m. for another non-conference game.
Quotes from VMI Head Coach Dan Earl:
"I'm really proud of the guys, but when you look at the stat sheet, I don't know if we deserve to win this game giving up 19 offensive rebounds. We shot a very poor percentage. But you look at the bright side of things and because we didn't do those things well, we had to have done something well. I thought we did compete and made enough plays down the stretch and certainly
Jake Stephens to have 28 points and 16 rebounds just had a phenomenal game over all. So, I was proud we figured a way to win and hopefully that's the hallmark of - somewhere in there - a good team again when the execution wasn't great."
"One of our staples has been knocking down free throws. I would have liked getting to the free throw line even more and getting the ball inside and we've got to be stronger with our drives."
"Credit Gardner-Webb. They played with much more physicality especially in the second half. They were driving it down our throats or dribbling down, posting up, and going one-on-one. They are a well-coached team and played really hard."
