Gallery
LEXINGTON, Va. – The VMI basketball team rolled to an 87-53 victory Thursday evening against Christendom College (Front Royal, Va.) to open the 2023-24 home season in Cameron Hall.
A total of 11 Keydets scored on the night, including seven freshmen, and 13 players saw action. Freshman
Koree Cotton netted a game and career-high 17 points, and fellow rookie
Tyran Cook had 13 points and added seven rebounds. Freshman
Stephen Olowoniyi had 11 points and six rebounds as the Keydets' top three scorers were first-year players.
VMI scored the first eight points of the game and finished the half on a 7-0 run to take a 43-19 lead into intermission. The Keydets extended a 57-37 edge with 12 minutes left in the second half to an 68-37 lead after an 11-0 surge.
Inside the box score:
*Senior guard
Devin Butler had 10 points and four rebounds
*Junior
Brennan Watkins had seven points and a career-high five assists while
DJ Nussbaum had six points
*Sophomore
Taeshaud Jackson II and freshmen
Corey Chesley,
Robert Peters and
Jaren Morton each had five points
*Senior
Jake Johnston entered the game late in the contest and earned his first career steal
*Jackson grabbed a game-high 10 boards, his second double-digit rebound game in the first two contests of the season.
Maurice Wright, Jr. also grabbed seven caroms
*John Paul Vander Woude had 16 points and seven rebounds for Christendom
*VMI held a substantial 48-28 rebound advantage
*The Keydets shot 51.5 percent from floor (35-68) and held the Crusaders to just 33.3 percent shooting (21-63)
Next Time:
VMI travels to the University of South Carolina Monday at 7 p.m. to kick off the three-game Arizona Tipoff Tournament.
Quotes from head coach Andrew Wilson:
On second-half play and setting a new standard
I thought we did a great job. I'm interested in getting better at every single possession. We had all our guys get a chance to step out on the floor. I want them to pursue excellence. Nine of our 13 scholarship guys are freshmen and we're a work in progress. We're trying to figure out how to chase that standard every single day. We're not there yet, but we're going to get there.
On having depth and more bodies to play
We have a lot of depth right now and we have a lot of talent. We have to figure out how to bring all that together. Our coaching staff is still learning our players and the players are still learning the coaching staff. It's exciting because we have competition at practice every day and the guys have been able to push each other.
On upcoming games against South Carolina and the Arizona Tipoff
I haven't had a chance to think about it yet. We had so much to correct from the Richmond game that we were just focused on tonight and trying to get better. We'll start watching film tonight and getting ready for South Carolina. It's going to be a tremendous test going into an SEC environment. It's going to be a great test but we're excited.
