holmstrom vs uncg - 2026 socon tourney
70
VMI VMI 6-26,1-17 SoCon
84
Winner UNC Greensboro UNCG 14-18,9-9 SoCon
VMI VMI
6-26,1-17 SoCon
70
Final
84
UNC Greensboro UNCG
14-18,9-9 SoCon
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
VMI VMI 27 43 70
UNC Greensboro UNCG 39 45 84

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

VMI falls to UNCG in SoCon Tournament First Round

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The VMI basketball team came within 10 points with five minutes left in regulation but could not quite complete a comeback as the No. 10 seed Keydets fell to No. 7 UNCG by an 84-70 count Friday night in the opening round of the 2026 Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship.
 
The Keydets (6-26) kept pace with the Spartans (14-18) early on before UNCG built a 12-point lead at 26-14 with 6:37 to go in the opening half following a Lillian Marville three-pointer. VMI cut the deficit to four points late in the half following consecutive baskets from Linus Holmstrom and Kaden Stuckey, but UNCG's Donald Whitehead, Jr. and Justin Neely combined forces to build the advantage back up to 12 at halftime, 39-27.
 
Linus Holmstrom hit three consecutive threes early in the second half to keep VMI in contention, but UNCG countered with threes of their own and key baskets to keep VMI at bay. The Spartans eventually build an 18-point lead with 7:21 left in regulation which proved insurmountable despite VMI cutting the deficit to 10 with 5:00 on the clock after a Holmstrom three-pointer.
 
Holmstrom finished the game with six threes for the night and team-high 24 points.


 
Key Stats
- The Spartans outscored VMI in the paint 46-26 and outrebounded the Keydets 40-29
- UNCG's KJ Younger finished with a game-high 29 points on 10 baskets and three treys. Justin Neely (14) and Whitehead (13) also finished in double figures
-VMI's TJ Johnson finished with 15 points while Tan Yildizoglu (13) and Kaden Stuckey (12) also had double digits
 
VMI Basketball Head Coach Andrew Wilson
"Congratulations to UNCG. I thought they had a really good game plan. They hit the offensive glass tonight and that was the difference in the game. They had 15 offensive rebounds for 19 second-chance points and that made it really difficult for us. We were worried about defending the three tonight and we did a pretty good job defending them from three-point range. They only made six threes tonight, so we took care of that but struggled to finish possessions.
 
"KJ Younger is a tremendous player for them. For him to come into a tournament setting as a freshman and have 29 points was very impressive.
 
"I'm proud of my guys. To only play with seven guys – which we did for the last few weeks of the season – and to keep fighting all season long, and to never give in, I'm very proud of them. We got within 10 late in the game, couldn't quite back make it all the way back, but we stayed with it and kept fighting."


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Print Friendly Version