cameron hall
Chuck Steenburgh

Men's Basketball

Keydets and Bulldogs Tangle Saturday on National TV

LEXINGTON, Va. – VMI (15-10, 8-5 SoCon) wraps up its three-game homestand Saturday afternoon as it takes on conference military college rival The Citadel in a nationally televised contest on CBS Sports Network beginning at 3:30 pm. The game is being promoted as a "Red Out" with all home spectators encouraged to wear red to the contest. The Keydets enter the game having won the last four contests and will be shooting for their longest win streak of the season of five games when they take on the Bulldogs. VMI will be playing its second game in three days after defeating Mercer, 85-79, Thursday night in Lexington. The recent victory solidified VMI's hold on third place in the SoCon standings with an 8-5 mark – one game ahead of fourth place UNCG (7-6). The Citadel enters weekend action 10-13, 4-8 following an 86-66 setback at UNCG Thursday night. VMI and The Citadel are the top two scoring teams in the league with the Keydets averaging 79.3 points per game and The Citadel at 79.1 points per game. VMI's Jake Stephens and The Citadel's Hayden Brown are also tied for second in the SoCon in scoring with each averaging 19.0 PPG. Saturday also marks the return of The Citadel head coach Duggar Baucom who guided the Keydets to an all-time best 151 wins in 10 seasons between 2005-2015. VMI continues to excel in several other statistical categories and pace the circuit in free throw percentage (.777-15th in nation), 3-pointers made per game (12.4-T-1st in nation), field goal percentage defense (.397), and defensive rebounds (29.0). The 15 wins for VMI this season are the most since 2013-14 and surpass the win output for last year's team that posted 13 victories in a shortened 25-game slate.

LAST TIME OUT - Behind game-highs of 27 points and 10 rebounds from senior center Jake Stephens, VMI extended its winning streak to four games Thursday evening with an 85-79 victory over Mercer at Cameron Hall. The last time the Keydets won four-straight conference games was in 2013-14, their final year in the Big South Conference. Stephens connected on 7-of-11 field goal attempts, including 4-6 behind the three-point arc to notch his 13th 20-point game this season to go along with his ninth double double. Trey Bonham scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half and added six rebounds and five assists. Kamdyn Curfman battled first-half foul trouble but scored 13 points, hitting 4-8 three-point attempts. Tanner Mans scored nine and Sean Conway contributed eight points and five rebounds. VMI led 40-34 at intermission and held the lead the entire second half, although the visitors cut the edge to just two on two different occasions. Shawn Walker, Jr. led Mercer (13-13/6-7 SoCon) with 18 points while James Glissoon III nailed five three pointers for 17 points. Felipe Haase posted a double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Jalen Johnson had 10 points and seven boards.  

LAST MEETING WITH THE CITADEL –- January 15, 2022 - Senior center Jake Stephens scored 20 points and grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds to help VMI hold off a second half rally by The Citadel and post a 90-85 Southern Conference at McAlister Field House. VMI held the lead for 38:27 of regulation, but wasn't able to put the game away until the final half minute of the contest. Stephens, who also blocked four shots, was joined in double figures scoring by sophomore guard Trey Bonham with a season-high 17 points giving him five double figures scoring games over his last six outings. Curfman and freshman guard Honor Huff each contributed 15 points as Huff returned to the starting lineup for the first time since late November. The Citadel was paced in scoring by Jason Roche who had 22 points including five 3-pointers.

 A WIN OVER THE CITADEL WOULD ...   
--- Move VMI to 9-5 in conference play
--- Extend VMI's win streak to five - its longest of the season
--- Make VMI 10-2 at home and be the 21st win over the last 24 at Cameron Hall  

VMI vs. The Citadel
This will be the 118th meeting between the teams that first met in 1921. The Citadel leads the series, 59-58, but the Keydets have claimed five of the last six meetings overall and eight straight in Lexington. The teams split the regular season series last year, VMI winning 110-103 in Lexington and The Citadel 75-74 in Charleston. The Keydets topped the Bulldogs, 90-85, in the first meeting this season on January 15 in Charleston, S.C.

STEPHENS ROLLS ALONG – Senior center Jake Stephens is putting together one of the most remarkable campaigns in VMI basketball history. Stephens currently leads the team in scoring average with 19.0 PPG (T-2nd in SoCon) and has 13 20+ point games this year including 12 of the last 16 contests. He also paces the squad in rebounding (9.1-1st in SoCon), field goal percentage (.551-1st in SoCon), and free throw percentage (80.0%-7th in SoCon). His 2.1 blocks per game rank second in the SoCon. Stephens has also been named Southern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week three times this season – most recently January 17 after a week where he posted a career-high 34 points at Mercer Jan. 13 and two days later pulled down a career-best 21 rebounds at The Citadel –the most by a SoCon player this season and then tied for seventh on the NCAA Division I game-high list this season.  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. Stephens scored 28 points against Gardner-Webb December 11 to become the 43rd player in VMI history to reach that mark. 

CURFMAN ECLIPSES 1,000 POINTS –Junior guard Kamdyn Curfman became the 44th player in VMI history to score 1,000 points in his VMI basketball career after a 16-point effort at Furman January 26. He is second in the SoCon in 3FG per game (3.7) and his 93 makes from beyond the arc are tied for first the league. Curfman has scored in double figures in 24 of 25 games this season with six 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 3's vs. Samford January 20 after doing so at Wake Forest December and Central Arkansas November 25. Curfman and has hit 5+ 3FG in eight games this season and has hit a three in 26 consecutive games – the longest active streak in the SoCon.  

BONHAM SCORES CAREER-HIGH – Sophomore guard Trey Bonham scored a career-high 21 points in the win over ETSU January 29 eclipsing his 21 points vs. Wofford last year. Bonham has tallied in double figures scoring in 12 of his last 13 games. He is third in the SoCon in assists per game (4.0), fourth in SoCon A/TO ratio (2.0), and eighth in free throw percentage (.775).  

HUFF WITH THREE STRAIGHT CAREER HIGHS – Freshman guard Honor Huff set career scoring highs in three consecutive January games. The Brooklyn, NY native had 15 points at The Citadel Jan. 15, 21 points vs. Samford Jan. 20, and 23 points against Chattanooga January 22. Over his last eight games, Huff is averaging 15.1 points and has scored in double figures six times including three 20+ point games.   

MORE LONG-RANGE ACCURACY – Through games of February 10, VMI is tied with Oral Roberts for first in Division I in three-pointers per game averaging 12.4 per contest and have hit 10+ threes in 22 games this season. The SoCon has four of the top 11 teams in the nation in three-pointers made per game with Furman 3rd (12.2), and The Citadel 6th (10.8) and Western Carolina 11th (10.2). 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. VMI converted on 359 threes that season - the 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
Jake Stephens

#34 Jake Stephens

C
6' 10"
Junior
Trey Bonham

#2 Trey Bonham

G
6' 0"
Freshman
Tanner Mans

#24 Tanner Mans

G
6' 6"
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
Jake Stephens

#34 Jake Stephens

6' 10"
Junior
C
Trey Bonham

#2 Trey Bonham

6' 0"
Freshman
G
Tanner Mans

#24 Tanner Mans

6' 6"
Freshman
G
Honor Huff

#3 Honor Huff

5' 10"
Freshman
G