A furious rally by the VMI Keydets fell just short as the Chattanooga Mocs held on for a thrilling 67-65 win in the final regular season game of the Southern Conference men’s basketball season Monday night in Lexington, Va.
The regular-season champion Mocs (26-5, 15-3) appeared to be in full control with less than four minutes to go, as they had a 10-point advantage, 64-54. QJ Peterson then scored 11 consecutive points over the span of 3:04, capped by three free throws with 17 seconds remaining, to pull the Keydets within one.
UTC then committed a turnover on the ensuing inbound pass, but Peterson missed a contested three-pointer in the final seconds. Despite the Mocs making just one of two free throws, the Keydets (9-20, 4-14 SoCon) could manage just a desperation heave as the clock expired.
The loss sends VMI to the #9 seed in the conference tournament and the Keydets will take on #8 Samford Friday, March 4 at 5 p.m. in Asheville, N.C.
Peterson led the way for the Keydets with 21 points, while Fred Iruafemi chipped in 11 markers. Tre’ McLean led UTC with a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double.
The Keydets led for the majority of the first half and in fact, went up by as many of seven in the first minutes of the game. UTC took its first lead of the night, 29-28, with 3:29 left in the half on a Duke Ethridge basket and led by one going into the locker room, 36-35, after a Justin Tuoyo tip-in as the clock ran out.
VMI went back up by seven in the first moments of the second half after five straight points from Fred Iruafemi, 45-38, but a 17-4 run pushed the Mocs out to a 55-49 advantage with 7:24 remaining. UTC’s defense held the Keydets scoreless over a 4:25 span on the clock to assist with that run.
A three-pointer by Tim Marshall made it a three-point game, but the Mocs scored nine of the game’s next 11 points and took a 10-point advantage with 3:21 to go, setting up the final drama.
For the game, the Keydets shot 24 of 53 (45.3%) from the floor and 10 of 24 (41.3%) from long range. Both teams struggled badly from the foul line, but UTC took advantage of a 21-attempt advantage and went 20 of 36 (55.6%) to VMI’s 7 of 15 (46.7%).
The Mocs went just 21 of 65 (32.3%) overall and 5 of 18 (27.8%) from long range, but took advantage of 16 Keydet turnovers and scored 14 points off those miscues.
VMI basketball will return to action Friday, when the Keydets begin play in the SoCon Championship at the US Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C. against #8 Samford. Tip time is set for 5 p.m.
Press Conference: VMI Head Coach Dan Earl
” I was proud of the way our guys fought back in the game. We had a lot of guys who affected the game. Fred Iruafemi came in and was outstanding and Austin Vereen and Adrian Rich affected the game positively. It came down to a last shot, but it really comes down to everything before that. You may miss an offensive or defensive rebound with 4:30 left and it turns out to be a huge play. It’s not just the last play, we have to continue to make the right play as much as possible throughout the whole game.”
“We could have taken care of the ball better. We had 17 turnovers and they also hurt us on the boards.”
“With Trey Chapman we weren’t as deep and I thought our guys to continued to fight throughout and we continue to make strides.”
“I thought we did a pretty good job of attacking throughout and unfortunately we just didn’t have enough at the end of the game.”
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