Virginia Military Institute Athletics issued the following announcement on Dec. 30
VMI plays its first home game since December 11 when it faces the Furman Paladins Saturday at Cameron Hall in Southern Conference action. Tipoff will be 1 pm. Both teams take 1-0 conference records into the contest after wins in their SoCon openers Wednesday night. VMI knocked off Wofford 80-73 in Spartanburg, South Carolina while Furman rolled to an 81-49 win over Samford in Greenville. VMI's win over Wofford was the first victory in a conference opener since 2014-15 and the first for VMI head coach Dan Earl. VMI also secured its third road win of the year and has far surpassed its one-win road victory total of last season. The Keydets have won five of their last six games and closed out the month of December with a 4-1 record. VMI is excelling in several statistical categories entering the Furman game and leads the SoCon in 3-pointers per game (12.7), free throw shooting (.800), field goal percentage defense (.372), 3-point field goal percentage (.281), and defensive rebounds (30.8). Furman, winners of two straight, holds an 9-5 overall record after a challenging non-conference schedule that saw a victory over Power 5 ACC foe Louisville in mid-November. The Paladins lead the SoCon in 3FG percentage (.395) followed by VMI at .367 and VMI and Furman rank 2-3 respectively in scoring offense with Furman at 80.1 PPG and VMI at 79.5 PPG. Saturday's game will also be part of the Ingles/Nexstar "Game of the Week" TV package and can be seen in several SoCon markets.
LAST TIME OUT – Senior center Jake Stephens scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and junior guard Kamdyn Curfman added 21 points to lead VMI over Wofford, 80-73, in the Southern Conference opener for both teams Wednesday night at Richardson Indoor Stadium. The Keydets (8-5, 1-0) won for the fifth time over the last six games and tasted victory in Spartanburg for the second year in a row. VMI defeated the Terriers in back-to-back games for the first time since the late 90's when the Keydets won three straight over Wofford spanning the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons. Stephens logged his fourth consecutive double-double with the effort (10th of his career) and converted 11 of 13 shots from the floor and drained two clutch free throws with 11 seconds left in regulation. He also led VMI with six assists. Curfman delivered five 3-point shots in his fifth 20-point+ game of the year. The Keydets also got double figures scoring from sophomore guard Trey Bonham (11 points) and junior guard Sean Conway (10 points). VMI shot 55.2 % in the second half hitting 30-of -8 from the floor and finishing the contest at 51.7% for their best effort against a Division I opponent this year. The Keydets also nailed 13 three-pointers for their 11th game of 10 or more makes from beyond the arc this season. Wofford, playing without leading scorer Max Klesmit, was led by junior forward B.J. Mack with 18 points while junior guard Isaiah Bigelow added 16 points - blistering the nets with four deep threes late in the second half to keep the Terriers within striking distance. VMI collected a season-best 10 steals while Wofford committed 16 turnovers which matched a season-high.
LAST MEETING WITH FURMAN – March 6, 2021 – Down by 10 with just over three minutes to play in regulation, the VMI basketball team made a furious rally to knot the score at 80 apiece to force overtime and eventually pulled out a 91-90 overtime victory over No. 3 seed Furman in quarterfinal action of the SoCon Tournament in Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina. VMI senior Myles Lewis kicked it up a notch in the overtime period to score six crucial points in the extra session, including a layup, a huge steal that led to another layup in transition, and a short jumper to pull VMI ahead 86-82 with 2:43 to play. Jake Stephens finished the game with 25 points while Parham ended with 21. Freshman Trey Bonham logged 14 points, Lewis finished with 13 and Sean Conway earned a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds in the win that featured five ties and four lead changes. Furman was paced by Gurley's 30 points while Mounce and Alex Hunter both finished with 17.
A WIN OVER FURMAN WOULD ...
--- Be VMI's sixth win over the last seven games
--- Be the third straight win over the Paladins
---Move VMI to 5-0 at home with 16 wins over the last 17 home games
VMI vs. Furman
This will be the 103rd meeting between the teams that first met in 1939. Furman leads the series, 66-36, and had taken ten straight games in the rivalry before VMI claimed both meeting last year - 73-74 on January 20 in Lexington and 91-90 in the SoCon quarterfinals on March 6, 2021.
STEPHENS CONTINUES TO ROLL, NAMED SOCON POTW, JOINS 1,000 POINT CLUB –With 27 points and 12 points rebounds against Wofford Wednesday, senior center Jake Stephens has posted four consecutive double-doubles. Earlier Stephens had 12 points and 10 rebounds at Wake Forest and scored season-high 28 points against Gardner-Webb December 11 to become the 43rd player in VMI history to reach that mark. Stephens also equaled his career bests in rebounds (16) and blocked shots (6) against the Bulldogs and was named GEICO Southern Conference Player of the Week December 13. Stephens is currently second on the team in scoring average with a 16.8 mark and leads the squad in rebounding (8.5-2nd in SoCon) and free throw percentage (85.2%). His 2.1 blocks per game rank second in the SoCon.
CURFMAN EQUALS CAREER HIGH –Senior guard Kamdyn Curfman matched his career-high in 3-pointers in a game when he nailed six at Wake Forest December 14. After matching his career-high of five 3-pointers in a game 12 times over the first two-plus years of his career, Curfman initially reached the six 3-pointer mark in VMI's 73-67 win over Central Arkansas November 25. Curfman currently leads the Keydets in scoring with 18.6 points per game which is fourth in the SoCon and has scored in double figures in all 23 games with five 20+ games including a career-high 27 points at Marist November 20. He leads the the SoCon lead in 3FG per game with 4.0 per contest.
MORE LONG-RANGE ACCURACY – VMI currently ranks third in the nation in three-pointers per game averaging 12.7 per contest and have hit 10+ threes in 11 games this season. VMI hit 22 three-pointers in the 111-55 win season opening win over Carlow November 9 continuing the prolific perimeter shooting of the past two seasons. The 22 makes from beyond the arc were two away from the school record of 24 set against Southern Virginia in 2008-09. 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. VMI hit a season-best 58.8% in 3-point shooting when they dropped in 10 of 17 shots from beyond the arc against Chattanooga January 2. In 2019-20, VMI also ranked second in Division I in three-pointers made in 2019-20 averaging 10.9 per game, second only to North Florida. VMI hit 18 three-pointers against Samford in the opening round of the 2020 SoCon tournament and for the season connected on 359 threes – 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 303-238 overall record at its home court and has won 15 of the last 16 games played there over the last two seasons.
Original source can be found here.
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