Junior guard Trey Bonham netted a career-best 21 points to help VMI rally from a nine-point second-half deficit Saturday to defeat East Tennessee State, 83-79, in a Southern Conference game from Cameron Hall.
The visiting Buccaneers led 58-49 with just over 13 minutes left before a 16-5 run over the next four minutes put the Keydets ahead 65-63. The teams traded the lead several times down the stretch and ETSU had a 79-78 advantage after a basket from Ty Brewer with 44 seconds left. Bonham answered with a driving layup eight seconds later and drew a foul.
After Bonham sank the free throw to complete a traditional three-point play and put VMI ahead 81-79, Sean Conway came up big on the defensive end with a block and ETSU was forced to foul. Louis Tang sank two free throws with 11 seconds left to provide the final cushion.
The victory snapped a 13-game losing skid to ETSU. Bonham tied a career-high with six rebounds and Jake Stephens notched his 13th career double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds. The senior center added five assists and three blocked shots on the afternoon. Honor Huff nailed four three pointers and finished with 21 points while Kamdyn Curfman had 12 points. Conway had eight points.
Jordan King paced ETSU (12-11/4-6 SoCon) with 27 points, nailing 7-of-12 three pointers. Ledarrius Brewer had 22 points and 10 rebounds and Mohab Yasser scored 11.
VMI (12-10/5-5) travels to UNCG for another SoCon game Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Postsgame: VMI coach Dan Earl
“Our guys kept their composure. We kept telling them to keep their heads up and stay with it. At times it felt like we were down by 20 but we were only down by seven. The guys kept grinding and swinging. We made plays on offense and made stops when we needed to down the stretch.
“Trey Bonham was awesome. He can get downhill for us and into the lane and create some problems. He makes good decisions when to kick it out or when to finish at the rim. He did a good job of shot-faking or finishing with contact. He played a good overall floor game. Defensively, he was dialed in and especially the second half. He kept his man in front of him and dove for loose balls. He played a phenomenal game.
“We played tough defensively. We kept their guys in front of us. Credit to ETSU – they have a lot of guys that can shoot from the perimeter.
“I’m proud of Louis Tang. Those late free throws were clutch. He hasn’t played a lot of minutes for us because he’s still coming back from injury, but he made a phenomenal defensive play with about a minute left in the game and forced them to take a bad shot.”
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