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Men's Basketball

Keydets Start Southern Swing at Mercer Thursday

LEADING OFF – VMI (9-7, 2-2) hits the road for one of its longest conference trips of the season when it travels to Mercer and The Citadel to complete the second week of January. The Keydets take on the Bears Thursday night in Macon at 7 pm, then wrap up the road swing with a Saturday afternoon encounter with conference rival The Citadel at 1 pm. VMI will be looking to snap a two-game skid after winning six of seven games through January 1. The Keydets suffered their first home loss of the season Saturday 72-56 to UNCG after shooting a season-low 34.6% from the floor. Thursday night's game will be the second straight regular season meeting between the teams in Macon as last year's game in Lexington was canceled because of COVID-19 issues. Mercer and VMI also met in the 2021 SoCon tournament semi-finals. Mercer is 8-8, 1-1 after falling at Furman 88-61 on Saturday. The Bears have dropped three out their last four after winning four straight games through mid-December.
 
LAST TIME OUT - A strong defensive effort propelled UNC-Greensboro (UNCG) to a 72-56 victory over VMI Saturday afternoon in a Southern Conference game from Cameron Hall. The Spartans forced the Keydets into just 34.6% percent shooting overall (18-52), 27.8% percent from three-point range (10-36) and 15 turnovers. Junior guard Kamdyn Curfman posted the first double-double of his career with 16 points and a game-best 10 rebounds while senior center Jake Stephens scored a game-high 22 points for VMI. Sean Conway contributed eight points and nine rebounds and Brennan Watkins had six points. UNCG led 20-18 with 6:24 left in the first half and closed on a 16-7 run to enter intermission with a 36-25 advantage. The closest the Keydets could get in the second half was seven points. Kobe Langley paced UNCG (9-5/1-1) with 18 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Kaleb Hunter had 15 points and De'Monte Buckingham compiled 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals. Bas Leyte added 11 points and five rebounds. The Spartans had 12 steals on the afternoon.
 
LAST MEETING WITH MERCER – March 6, 2021 – Looking to continue its momentum following a big upset over No. 3 seed Furman, the No. 6 seed VMI basketball team fell by a 73-59 score to No. 7 seed Mercer in the 2021 SoCon Tournament in the semifinals at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville. The Keydets struggled from three-point range in the loss as they hit just four of 25 attempts throughout the game and could not keep pace with the Bears. While both teams struggled in the first half shooting, the Bears raced to a 33-26 halftime lead and kept the same pace during the second half to outscore the Keydets, 40-33, and gradually built a 17-point lead with only minutes to play en route to the victory. Mercer grabbed 12 offensive rebounds throughout the night which led to a 13-3 second-chance points advantage to aid the Bears to victory. The Bears also benefited from bench play as 20 points came from the reserves.Senior Myles Lewis finished the game with a double-double by scoring a season-high 24 points and grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds in his final game as a Keydet. Fellow senior Greg Parham went 5-14 from the field and yielded 12 points while Jake Stephens and Kamdyn Curfman scored nine points apiece. The Bears were led by 23 points from guard Neftali Alvarez, who went 9-19 from the field including three treys.
 
A WIN OVER MERCER WOULD ...   
--- Be VMI's fourth road win of the year
--- Move VMI to 3-2 in league play
--- Snap a four-game skid against the Bears
 
VMI at Mercer
This will be the 18th meeting between the teams that first met in 2006. Mercer leads the series, 14-3, and has taken eight of the last nine meetings. Mercer defeated VMI 83-80 in VMI's last trip to Macon in 2020-21.
 
STEPHENS SWEEPS AWARDS – Senior center Jake Stephens rang in the New Year with a shower of accolades last week after being named the Lou Henson College Insider National Player of the Week and both SoCon GEICO Player of the Week and December Player of the month. In December, Stephens Averaged 21.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.8 blocked shots per game and shot 57.6 percent from the floor in helping VMI to a 4-1 record during the month. With a season-high 29 points and 15 rebounds against ETSU last Wednesday, Stephens has posted five double-doubles over the last seven game and has 11 for his career. Earlier, Stephens scored season-high 28 points against Gardner-Webb December 11 to become the 43rd player in VMI history to reach that mark. Stephens also equaled his career bests in rebounds (16) and blocked shots (6) against the Bulldogs and was named GEICO Southern Conference Player of the Week December 13. Stephens currently leads the team in scoring average with an 18.3 PPG (4th best in SoCon) mark and has six 20+ point games this year. He also paces the squad in rebounding (8.4-2ndin SoCon) and free throw percentage (85.0%). His 2.2 blocks per game rank second in the SoCon.
 
CURFMAN STELLAR FROM PERIMETER –Senior guard Kamdyn Curfman matched his career-high in 3-pointers in a game when he nailed six at Wake Forest December 14. After posting his career-high of five 3-pointers in a game 12 times over the first two-plus years of his career, Curfman initially reached the six 3-pointer mark in VMI's 73-67 win over Central Arkansas November 25. Curfman currently is second on the team in scoring with 17.9 points per game which is fifth in the SoCon and has scored in double figures in all 16 games with five 20+ games including a career-high 27 points at Marist November 20. He also is tied for first in the SoCon lead in 3FG per game with 3.9 per contest and has hit 5+ 3FG in seven games this season. 
 
MORE LONG-RANGE ACCURACY – VMI currently leads in the nation in three-pointers per game averaging 12.6 per contest and have hit 10+ threes in 14 games this season. VMI hit 22 three-pointers in the 111-55 win season opening win over Carlow November 9 continuing the prolific perimeter shooting of the past two seasons. The 22 makes from beyond the arc were two away from the school record of 24 set against Southern Virginia in 2008-09. VMI in 2020-21 ranked second in the nation in 3-pointers made per game for the second straight year and averaged 10.8 per game ranking only behind Oral Roberts with 11.1 per contest. The Keydets drained 10 or more threes in 17 games last season. In 2019-20, VMI also ranked second in Division I in three-pointers made averaging 10.9 per game, second only to North Florida. That season, VMI hit 18 three-pointers against Samford in the opening round of the 2020 SoCon tournament and for the season connected on 359 threes – third most on the school all-time list.



 
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Players Mentioned

Sean Conway

#30 Sean Conway

G
6' 5"
Sophomore
Kamdyn Curfman

#10 Kamdyn Curfman

G
6' 1"
Sophomore
Myles Lewis

#15 Myles Lewis

G
6' 5"
Senior
Greg Parham

#5 Greg Parham

G
6' 4"
Senior
Jake Stephens

#34 Jake Stephens

C
6' 10"
Junior
Brennan Watkins

#1 Brennan Watkins

G
5' 11"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Sean Conway

#30 Sean Conway

6' 5"
Sophomore
G
Kamdyn Curfman

#10 Kamdyn Curfman

6' 1"
Sophomore
G
Myles Lewis

#15 Myles Lewis

6' 5"
Senior
G
Greg Parham

#5 Greg Parham

6' 4"
Senior
G
Jake Stephens

#34 Jake Stephens

6' 10"
Junior
C
Brennan Watkins

#1 Brennan Watkins

5' 11"
Freshman
G