connor arnold
SportsPhotoGuy.com for VMI

Men's Basketball

Keydets Travel to ETSU For Wednesday Road Test

LEADING OFF – VMI returns to the road Wednesday night when it takes its 2-0 Southern Conference mark to Johnson City, Tennessee and a match-up against conference rival ETSU. Tipoff from Freedom Hall will be 7 pm. The Keydets, winners of six of their last seven, moved to 9-5 overall after a 76-67 win over Furman Saturday at Cameron Hall which moved the Keydets to 5-0 at home and 16 wins over the last 17 in Lexington. VMI has not been 2-0 in conference play since starting 4-0 during the 2012-13 campaign when VMI was a member of the Big South. VMI is excelling in several statistical categories entering the ETSU game and leads the SoCon in 3-pointers per game (12.8), free throw shooting (.804), field goal percentage defense (.374), 3-point field goal percentage defense (.284), and defensive rebounds (30.7). ETSU (8-6, 0-1) returns to action falling at Chattanooga 82-52 Thursday night. The Bucs have dropped three of their last four, but did defeat SEC Power 5 foe Georgia, 86-84, on December 22 for its last mark in the win column.  

LAST TIME OUT - Sophomore guard Trey Bonham scored all of his season-high tying 16 points in the second half Saturday as VMI started 2022 off with a 76-67 Southern Conference victory over Furman University Saturday at Cameron Hall. The win lifts the Keydets to their first 2-0 start in league play since doing so in 2012-13 as a member of the Big South Conference. The last time VMI accomplished the feat in the Southern Conference was the 1997-98 season with wins over Georgia Southern and UNCG.Furman (9-6, 1-1) led 36-30 at intermission and had a 55-54 edge with just over eight minutes left to play. VMI (9-5, 2-0)went on a 20-6 run over the next seven minutes to take a 74-61 advantage and put the game away. Senior center Jake Stephens delivered a game-high 23 points to go along with eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Sean Conway notched the sixth double-double of his career with a full stat line of 11 points, a game-high 12 rebounds, five assists and two steals. Kamdyn Curfman scored 11 points and Honor Huff had nine points.  Jalen Slawson scored a team-high 20 points for Furman (9-6/1-1 SoCon) with seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Mike Bothwell had 14 points and eight rebounds while Joe Anderson had 11 points.VMI shot 51 percent from the floor (29-57) and 47 percent from three-point range (14-30), while holding Furman to just 40 percent shooting overall (25-62) and 31 percent from three-point distance (12-39). It was the Keydets' first victory of the season after trailing at halftime and the third-straight win over the Paladins. 

LAST MEETING WITH ETSU – January 18, 2021 – A program record 16 three-pointers by host ETSU lifted the Bucs past the Keydets by a 92-81 score in a Southern Conference rescheduled game at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee. VMI and ETSU traded baskets for the entirety of the opening half as the Bucs earned a slight 39-36 advantage going into the break. The teams continued the trend early in the second half with the game knotted at 53 apiece with 14:34 to play after Kamdyn Curfman scored on a fast break layup.The Bucs then went on a 21-6 run to take its biggest lead of the contest following three consecutive treys, including one by David Sloan to put ETSU up 74-59 with 7:27 to play. VMI was able to cut it back to single digits but could come no closer than 83-76 after a Greg Parham free throw with 2:01 left. Parham finished the game with a team-high 27 points, his fourth consecutive 20-point game. Jake Stephens nearly finished with a second straight double-double as he ended up with 19 points and nine rebounds. ETSU's Ledarrius Brewer led the Bucs with 23 points while Damari Monsanto added 19.

A WIN OVER ETSU WOULD ...  
--- Be VMI's seventh win over the last eight games
--- Snap a 12-game skid vs. ETSU
--- Move VMI to 3-0 in conference play since 2012-13 (Big South)

VMI vs. ETSU
This will be the 68th meeting between the teams that first met in 1953. ETSU leads the series, 53-14, and has taken the last 12 meetings including a 92-81 in decision in Johnson City last year in the only meeting between the teams during the year. VMI's last win at ETSU was January 2, 1999 when they prevailed 58-55 in the Mini-dome. The Keydets have dropped 11 straight vs. the Bucs in Johnson City.

STEPHENS SWEEPS AWARDS – Senior center Jake Stephens rang in the New Year with a shower of accolades this week after being named 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 27 points and 12 points rebounds against Wofford December 29, Stephens has posted his fourth consecutive double-doubles. Earlier Stephens had 12 points and 10 rebounds at Wake Forest and 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 is currently second on the team in scoring average with a 17.2 mark and leads the squad in rebounding (8.4-2nd in SoCon) and free throw percentage (85.5%). His 2.1 blocks per game rank second in the SoCon. 

CURFMAN EQUALS CAREER HIGH –Senior guard Kamdyn Curfman matched his career-high in 3-pointers in a game when he nailed six at Wake Forest December 14. After matching 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 leads the Keydets in scoring with 18.1 points per game which is fourth in the SoCon and has scored in double figures in all 14 games with five 20+ games including a career-high 27 points at Marist November 20. He leads the the SoCon lead in 3FG per game with 3.9 per contest.   

MORE LONG-RANGE ACCURACY – VMI currently ranks tied for second in the nation in three-pointers per game averaging 12.8 per contest and have hit 10+ threes in 12 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. VMI hit a season-best 58.8% in 3-point shooting when they dropped in 10 of 17 shots from beyond the arc against Chattanooga January 2. In 2019-20, VMI also ranked second in Division I in three-pointers made in 2019-20 averaging 10.9 per game, second only to North Florida. 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.




 
Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Sean Conway

#30 Sean Conway

G
6' 5"
Sophomore
Kamdyn Curfman

#10 Kamdyn Curfman

G
6' 1"
Sophomore
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
Honor Huff

#3 Honor Huff

G
5' 10"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Sean Conway

#30 Sean Conway

6' 5"
Sophomore
G
Kamdyn Curfman

#10 Kamdyn Curfman

6' 1"
Sophomore
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
Honor Huff

#3 Honor Huff

5' 10"
Freshman
G