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Men's Basketball

Keydets Head to Charleston for Showdown with The Citadel

LEADING OFF – VMI (9-8, 2-3) will wrap up one of its longest conference road trips of the season Saturday when it travels to Charleston, South Carolina to face The Citadel to complete the second week of January. The Keydets and Bulldogs will tipoff at 1 pm at McAlister Field House. VMI will be looking for a turnaround and is on a three-game skid after winning six of seven games through January 1. The Keydets fell short 97-91 at Mercer on Thursday night after trimming an 18-point halftime deficit to two points in the final minute of regulation. The Citadel (7-7, 1-2) enters Saturday action after rallying from a 33-15 halftime deficit to defeat UNCG 74-69 Thursday night in Charleston. The weekend hardwood clash between the Keydets and Bulldogs will feature two of the top players in the Southern Conference. VMI's Jake Stephens scored a career-high 34 points against Mercer Thursday night while The Citadel's Hayden Brown had 24 points and 15 rebounds in the win over UNCG. VMI and The Citadel are two of the top 3-point shooting teams in country with the Keydets ranking first (12.6) and the Bulldogs fifth (11.3) through games played January 13. 

LAST TIME OUT - Trailing by a 52-34 score at halftime, the VMI basketball team rallied in the second half and came within two points of the Mercer Bears in the final minute but the Bears hung on to outlast the Keydets 97-91 Thursday night at Hawkins Arena in Macon, Georgia. Although Mercer (9-7, 2-1) did not score a field goal in the final 4:55 of the game, the Bears finished 14-of-16 from the charity stripe to close out the game despite VMI's best efforts to knot the score and overcome its 18-point deficit at the break. A Kamdyn Curfman three and Trey Bonham layup cut the deficit to 93-91 with 15 seconds to play, but Mercer continued to knock down its free throws to close out the game and escape with the win. Jake Stephens finished with a career-high 34 points going 13-for-20 from the field, including 6-of-7 from three-point range. Sean Conway ended up with 18 points and went 4-for-6 from three-point land while Bonham also tallied double digits with all 16 points coming in the second half. Jalen Johnson earned a team-high 30 point including 8-for-8 in 3-pointers for the Bears while Felipe Haase poured in 28 points to aid Mercer to victory.

LAST MEETING WITH THE CITADEL – February 20, 2021 – Senior forward Hayden Brown hit a driving layup with 1.1 seconds remaining to lift The Citadel past VMI 75-74 in Southern Conference basketball action at McAlister Field House. The Citadel denied VMI a fifth straight win in the series and placed four in double figures scoring led by senior guard Kaiden Rice who scored a game-high 20 points. Brown posted his 12th double-double of the year with 14 points and 14 rebounds while Fletcher Abee contributed 19 points for the hosts. The Keydets were led by junior center Jake Stephens with 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds while guards Greg Parham and Kamdyn Curfman each chipped in 17 points. Myles Lewis pulled down 11 rebounds for his third straight double-digit rebounding game. A Parham banker and three-point play by Lewis that pushed the Keydets ahead 74-73 with 18.2 left. The Citadel brought the ball front court and burned its final timeout with 14 seconds remaining. When play resumed and the clock in the final five seconds, The Citadel guard Tyler Moffe dribbled into the paint and handed back to Brown near the free throw line with seconds remaining. Brown found an open lane and cut to the goal scoring the game winner with 1.1 left.

A WIN OVER THE CITADEL WOULD ...   
--- Be VMI's fourth road win of the year
--- Even VMI's conference record to 3-3
--- Give VMI its fifth win over the last six matchups versus the Bulldogs

VMI at The Citadel
This will be the 117th meeting between the teams that first met in 1921. The Citadel leads the series, 59-57, but the Keydets have claimed four of the last five meetings. The teams split the regular season series last year, VMI winning 110-103 in Lexington and The Citadel 75-74 in Charleston. 

STEPHENS POSTS CAREER-HIGHS – Senior center Jake Stephens scored a career-high 34 points and dropped in a career-best 6 three-pointers against Mercer Thursday night – extending a prolific scoring rampage that began before the holidays. Stephens rang in the New Year with a shower of accolades 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 January 5, Stephens posted his fifth double-double of the season and has 11 for his career. Stephens also scored 28 points against Gardner-Webb December 11 to become the 43rd player in VMI history to reach that mark. Stephens equaled his career bests in rebounds (16) and blocked shots (6) against the Gardner-Webb and was named GEICO Southern Conference Player of the Week December 13. Stephens currently leads the team in scoring average with 19.2 PPG (2nd best in SoCon) and has eight 20+ point games this year including five straight contests. He also paces the squad in rebounding (8.4-3rd in SoCon) and free throw percentage (87.0%-3rd in SoCon). His 2.1 blocks per game rank second in the SoCon. 

CURFMAN A THREAT FROM PERIMETER –Senior guard Kamdyn Curfman is ranked second in the SoCon in 3FG per game (3.8) and has scored in double figures in all 18 games this season with five 20+ games including a career-high 27 points at Marist November 20. Curfman matched his career-high in 3-pointers in a game when he nailed six at Wake Forest December 14 equaling the six 3-pointer mark in VMI's 73-67 win over Central Arkansas November 25. Curfman 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 15 games this season. Through games of January 13, the SoCon has four of the top six teams in the nation in three-pointers made per game with The Furman-4th, The Citadel-5th, and Western Carolina-6th. 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
Trey Bonham

#2 Trey Bonham

G
6' 0"
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
Trey Bonham

#2 Trey Bonham

6' 0"
Freshman
G