mans at wake forest

Men's Basketball

Keydets Open Road Swing at Samford Thursday

LEADING OFF – VMI (15-11, 8-6 SoCon) takes its final multi-game road swing of the season this week and travels to Birmingham, Alabama for a visit against the Samford Bulldogs Thursday night at Petet Hanna Center. Tipoff will be 8 pm EST. The Keydets enter their longest trip of the year from a distance standpoint in third place in the SoCon standings entering Wednesday's action. VMI is looking to rebound after having its four-game winning streak snapped at home against The Citadel, 83-79, last Saturday at Cameron Hall. VMI has four regular season games remaining -three on the road - and a victory in any one of those games remaining regular season contests would assure the Keydets of back-to-back winning seasons since 2012-13. Samford enters the game 16-9, 6-7, and has won five of its last six to come roaring back into contention for a first-round bye in the upcoming SoCon Basketball Championships tournament in Asheville, North Carolina. The Bulldogs have proved to be a tough out in home conference games with a 4-1 mark this season. Through games of February 14, VMI leads the nation in three-pointers made per game (12.5) and total 3FGs (324) and tops the SoCon in scoring (79.3 PPG), free throw percentage (.774-20th in nation), field goal percentage defense (.399), and defensive rebounds (28.9). 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 - VMI nearly rallied all the way back from a 19-point second half deficit Saturday, but The Citadel held on for an 83-79 win in a SoCon game at Cameron Hall. The visiting Bulldogs led 40-32 at intermission and went ahead 57-38 after opening the second half with a 17-6 run. The Keydets slowly chipped away and cut the lead to just two at 78-76 after a Jake Stephens layup with 30 seconds left. Hayden Brown converted two free throws for The Citadel and Stephen Clark, the leading shot blocker in the conference, made a key defensive play on the other end, rejecting a VMI layup attempt. The Bulldogs sealed the game from the free throw line. Stephens had his 10th double-double of the season with 21 points and 17 rebounds with two blocked shots. Sophomore guard Trey Bonham filled the stat sheet with 12 points, a career-high nine rebounds, and seven assists and three steals. Freshman guard Honor Huff had 19 points while junior Kamdyn Curfman posted 14 points and five rebounds. The loss snapped VMI's four-game conference winning streak, its longest since the 2013-14 season. The Bulldogs (11-13/5-8 SoCon) nailed 17-of-32 (53.1%) from behind the three-point arc for the game. Brown had 22 points and seven rebounds in just under 18 minutes of game time. David Maynard and Tyler Moffe each scored 16 for the visitors.

LAST MEETING WITH THE SAMFORD – January 20, 2022 - Freshman guard Honor Huff netted a career-high 21 points as VMI defeated Samford 99-80 from Cameron Hall. Huff nailed 5-of-7 shots from three-point range and 8-of-11 overall to go along with four assists to snap his previous best of 15 points against The Citadel Saturday. Junior Kamdyn Curfman finished with a game-high 23 points, tying his season-high of six treys in the contest, and his sixth 20-point game of the season. Trey Bonham had a full stat line with 16 points, a career-high eight assists, and five rebounds while Tanner Mans made 4-of-5 from deep and finished with 14 points. Jake Stephens contributed 10 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two blocks. VMI shot 52.8 percent (19-36) from three-point distance for the game, the most three-pointers made against a Division I opponent this season. The Keydets shot 57.6 percent (34-59) from the floor for the game, while holding the Bulldogs to 40 percent (28-70) overall. VMI distributed 25 assists, the most against a D1 foe this year. Logan Dye had 19 points and eight rebounds to pace Samford (11-7/1-5 SoCon) and Ques Glover had 18 points and five boards.

 A WIN OVER THE SAMFORD WOULD ...  
--- Move VMI to 9-6 in conference play
--- Give VMI its sixth road win of the year
--- Assure VMI of back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2010-11 and 2011-12


VMI vs. Samford
This will be the 21st meeting between the schools that first met in 1967. Samford leads the series 15-5, but the Keydets have taken three out of the last four encounters including the most recent meeting, 99-80, this season in Lexington. Samford prevailed at home, 84-71, last year in Birmingham.

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 19.1 PPG (3rd in SoCon) and has 14 20+ point games this year including 13 of the last 17 contests. He also paces the squad in rebounding (9.4-1st in SoCon), field goal percentage (.555-1st in SoCon), and free throw percentage (79.5%-8th 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 four times this season – most recently February14 after a week where he after averaging 24.0 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game on the week. Last month, Stephens 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 97 makes from beyond the arc are first tin he league. Curfman has scored in double figures in 25 of 26 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 27 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 13 of his last 14 games. He is third in the SoCon in assists per game (4.1), fourth in SoCon A/TO ratio (2.1), and ninth in free throw percentage (.775). He grabbed a career-best nine rebounds against The Citadel Feb. 12 and has averaged 7.0 RPG his last three games. 

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 nine games, Huff is averaging 15.6 points and has scored in double figures seven times including three 20+ point games.  
 
MORE LONG-RANGE ACCURACY – Through games of February 14, VMI is first in Division I in three-pointers per game averaging 12.5 per contest and have hit 10+ threes in 23 games this season. The SoCon has four of the top 10 teams in the nation in three-pointers made per game with Furman 4th (11.9), The Citadel 5th (11.1) and Western Carolina 10th (10.3). 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

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

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