LEADING OFF – VMI (16-14, 9-9 SoCon) begins postseason tournament action in Asheville, North Carolina when it faces the Wofford Terriers Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Ingles SoCon Tournament Basketball Championships at the Harrah's Cherokee Center. VMI enters tourney play with the #5 seed, its highest since rejoining the Southern Conference in 2014-15. The nine conference wins were the most SoCon victories in a season for a VMI basketball team since the 1998-99 campaign when the Keydets went 9-7. VMI also earned back-to-back tournament first round byes for the first time since rejoining the league. The Keydets will be facing the #4 seed Terriers for the second time in 10 days after squaring off on VMI's Senior Night February 23 with Wofford winning 83-72. The teams split the regular season series with VMI posting an 80-73 win over the Terriers December 29 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  The winner of Saturday's quarterfinal will advance to Sunday's semifinal round at 5 pm versus the winner of the Chattanooga vs. The Citadel/ETSU game. VMI and Wofford are meeting for the third time in SoCon tournament history with the Terriers taking the previous matchups in 2000 and 2019. Through games of March 1, VMI leads the nation in three-pointers made per game (12.6) total 3FGs made (378), and tops the SoCon in scoring (79.5 PPG), free throw percentage (.783-12th in nation), field goal percentage defense (.413), and is second in defensive rebounds (28.1) and 3FG percentage (.384-13th in nation). The 16 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 - Junior forward Marlow Gilmore scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and graduate guard Cam Bacote added 23 points to lead the Western Carolina Catamounts to an 83-72 win over the VMI Keydets Saturday night at Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, North Carolina in the regular season finale for both teams. The Catamounts (11-20, 5-13) outscored VMI 46-18 in the paint and never trailed in the contest. WCU shot 50.8% from the floor in winning its second straight home game. VMI played its second straight game without leading scorer and rebounder Jake Stephens who was recovering from an ankle injury. The Keydets labored through a tough shooting night going 23 of 69 for 37.7% from the floor but did hit 13 three-point shots giving them 27 games of 10+ threes made this year. VMI was paced in scoring by Trey Bonham with 14 points – all in the second half - and the sophomore also grabbed a team high seven rebounds. Junior guard Kamdyn Curfman added 12 points, 5 rebounds, and four assists. Freshman guard Honor Huff scored 11 points with four rebounds for the visitors. Gilmore highlighted WCU's strong inside play hitting his first 12 shots from the floor before missing his first shot attempt on a tip-in attempt with just over two minutes left in regulation.  

LAST MEETING WITH WOFFORD – February 23, 2022 - A big second-half run allowed visiting Wofford College to pull away from VMI for an 83-72 win at Cameron Hall. Wofford led 34-29 at the half, holding VMI to just 2-15 shooting (13.3%) from three-point range. Following five straight free throws from freshman Honor Huff, the game was tied at 43-43 with 13 minutes remaining. A run of 19-7 gave the visitors a 62-50 lead with eight minutes left, an advantage they extended to 17 down the stretch.   Huff and sophomore Trey Bonham each scored 20 points for VMI and combined for five steals. Senior guard Connor Arnold nailed three three-pointers and ended with 13 points and freshman Cooper Sisco had eight points. With leading scorer Jake Stephens out with an injury, the Terriers took advantage in the paint. Wofford shot 56.1 percent for the game (32-57), including a 67.9 percent mark (19-28) in the second half and held a 36-26 advantage in rebounding. Max Klesmit scored 18 of his game-high 22 points for Wofford in the second half and made 8-of-12 shots. B.J. Mack hit 9-of-13 for 21 points with seven rebounds and Ryan Larson had 15 points.

 A WIN OVER WOFFORD WOULD ...   
--- Advance VMI to the conference tournament semifinals for the second straight year
--- Be VMI's third victory over Wofford in the last four meetings
--- Assure VMI of back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2010-11 and 2011-12

VMI vs. Wofford
This will be the 29th meeting in the series with Wofford holding a 20-8 advantage. VMI has won two of the last three matchups to reverse what had been a one-sided series prior to last year. The Keydets prevailed in the first meeting this year, 80-73, with Wofford winning the rematch 83-72 in Lexington. This will be the third time the teams have met in a conference tourney setting with Wofford claiming meetings in 2000 and 2019.  

STEPHENS NAMED FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE – VMI senior center Jake Stephens added another accolade to a remarkable senior season when he was named first team All-SoCon on both the coaches and media teams. Prior to sustaining an ankle injury February 19, Stephens was putting together one of the most outstanding senior seasons in program history as he tallied a career-high 39 points including 7 three-pointers against Samford February 17. Stephens currently leads the team in scoring average with 19.3 PPG (2nd in SoCon) and has 15 20+ point games this year including 14 of the last 19 contests played. He also paces the squad in rebounding (9.2-2nd in SoCon), field goal percentage (.559-1st in SoCon), 3FG percentage (.489-1st in SoCon) and is 2nd in free throw percentage (78.6%-8th in SoCon). His 2.0 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 February 14 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. In January, Stephens posted a then 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.

BONHAM EARNS ALL-SOCON HONORS – Sophomore guard Trey Bonham was named All-Southern Conference third team by both the league coaches and media. The honor capped a big month of February for Bonham as he was selected SoCon Player of the Week presented by Geico February 14 after averaging 25.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game on the week and scored a career-high 31 points against Samford Feb. 17 and followed with 20 points and six assists in the win at Chattanooga February 19. Bonham has tallied in double figures scoring in 17 of his last 18 games. He is tied for third in the SoCon in assists per game (4.0), tied for fourth in SoCon A/TO ratio (1.9), and sixth in free throw percentage (.822). He grabbed a career-best nine rebounds against The Citadel Feb. 12. 
 
CURFMAN LANDS ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS –Junior guard Kamdyn Curfman was voted second team SoCon All-Conference coaches' team and third team All-Conference media squad in the awards announced this week. Curfman, who 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, has established himself as one of the top perimeter shooters in the league. He is tied for first in the SoCon in 3FG per game (3.7) and his 111 makes from beyond the arc are most in the league and ranked third most in a season in VMI history. Curfman has scored in double figures in 28 of 30 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 seven games this season and has hit a three in 31 consecutive games – the longest active streak in the SoCon.  

HUFF PROVIDES SCORING PUNCH – Freshman guard Honor Huff was voted to the SoCon All-Freshman team announced Wednesday and has provided the Keydets a reliable scoring option since moving into the starting lineup in mid-January. Huff immediately responded as a starter and set career scoring highs in three consecutive January games which has sparked a scoring outburst into February. The Brooklyn, NY native had 15 points at The Citadel Jan. 15, 21 points vs. Samford Jan. 20, and added 23 points against Chattanooga January 22. Over his last 13 games, Huff is averaging 15.6 points and has scored in double figures 11 times including four 20+ point games.   

MORE LONG-RANGE ACCURACY – Through games of March 1, VMI is first in Division I in three-pointers per game averaging 12.6 per contest and have hit 10+ threes in 27 games this season. The 378 made 3FG through 30 games leads Division I is the third highest in a season in program history. The SoCon has five of the top 20 teams in the nation in three-pointers made per game with Furman 2nd (12.1), The Citadel 5th (10.9), Western Carolina 11th (10.1) and Wofford 20th (9.6). 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 – then the third most on the school all-time list.

CAMERON HALL CELEBRATES 40th ANNIVERSARY WITH WIN – The December 11 64-61 win over Gardner-Webb helped celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first game played in the facility on December 5, 1981. Several players and coaches from the past four decades returned to post on the afternoon to participate in a special halftime ceremony that ended with VMI Superintendent Major General Cedric T. Wins '85, who scored the first point in Cameron Hall history, hitting a shot to bring Saturday's ceremony to a close. VMI now has a 308-242 overall record at its home court and has won 20 of the last 25 games played there over the last two seasons.