Box Score

LEXINGTON, Va. – League-leading Chattanooga hung on for a 78-74 victory over the VMI men's basketball team Saturday afternoon from Cameron Hall in a Southern Conference game.

The Keydets rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to take a 74-73 lead on a Trey Bonham layup with 1:24 left. The Mocs' Malachi Smith, the leading scorer in the conference, answered with a jumper and after a steal on the other end, David Jean-Baptiste sunk two free throws with 16 seconds left to make it a 77-74 Chattanooga lead. VMI worked the ball around but junior Kamdyn Curfman's three-pointer in the closing seconds left rimmed out.

Freshman Honor Huff scored a career-high 25 points, shooting 8-of-12 from the floor, his third-straight game setting a new top mark. He scored 21 at The Citadel last Saturday and 23 against Samford Thursday, both VMI victories. Jake Stephens netted 20 with seven rebounds, four treys and two blocks and Curfman had 16, nailing four three-pointers. Bonham finished with 10 points.

Smith scored a game-high 25 points for the Mocs (16-4/6-1) with six steals and five rebounds. Jean-Baptist had 15 points and Darius Banks had 10 points and seven rebounds.

Both teams shot the ball well, with Chattanooga sinking 54 percent (27-50) of its shots while VMI sunk 48.1 percent (25-52). The Mocs took advantage of 90.9 percent (20-22) shooting from the free-throw line, while VMI hit an uncharacteristic 53.3 percent (8-15) from the charity stripe. The Keydets had led the conference in free-throw shooting percentage (80.3%) entering the game.

The Keydets (11-9/4-4 SoCon) travel to Furman University Wednesday for another SoCon game at 7 p.m.

Quotes from head coach Dan Earl:

"Our guys are hurting. In some ways you don't want to see them hurt, but that's a good sign. I did think we competed and battled throughout the whole game so I was really proud of the effort. Nothing to hold your head down about. Chattanooga is a very good basketball team. They make it very tough on you so credit to them. Coach Paris is doing a heck of a job with them. They are very good defensively and have a bunch of guys who can score."
 
"There were some things that were a little uncharacteristic - 16 turnovers and only 11 assists in the game and credit to Chattanooga for that. Shooting 8-for-15 from the free throw line, that's usually not what we do but sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way. We would have certainly liked to have won that game but I am proud of the guys' effort. They continued to swing and continued to fight."