Junior forward Marlow Gilmore scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and graduate guard Cam Bacote added 23 points to lead Western Carolina to an 83-72 win over VMI Saturday night in the regular season finale for both teams.
The Catamounts (11-20, 5-13 SoCon) outscored VMI 46-18 in the paint and never trailed in the contest. WCU shot 50.8% from the floor in winning its second straight home game.
VMI (16-14, 9-9 SoCon) played its second straight game without leading scorer and rebounder Jake Stephens, who is recovering from an ankle injury. The Keydets labored through a tough shooting night going 23-of-61 for 37.7% from the floor but did hit 13 3-point shots, giving them 27 games of 10+ threes made this year.
VMI was paced in scoring by Trey Bonham with 14 points – all in the second half – and the sophomore also grabbed a team high seven rebounds. Junior guard Kamdyn Curfman added 12 points, 5 rebounds, and four assists. Freshman guard Honor Huff scored 11 points with four rebounds for the visitors.
The Catamounts raced to an early 10-2 lead before the Keydets rallied to tie the game at 10-10 five minutes into the first half. WCU then reeled of a 29-11 run over the next seven minutes to break the game open fueled by 11 straight points scored by junior guard Marvin Price. The Catamounts twice led by as much as 20 points in the first half and led 43-28 at the break.
VMI twice trimmed the deficit to single digits in the second only to see Western Carolina repel the rally. A Curfman 3-pointer at the 10:39 mark pulled the Keydets within 62-53, and a pair of Bonham free throws later at the 1:55 mark made it 79-71 but VMI could get no closer.
Gilmore highlighted WCU’s strong inside play hitting his first 12 shots from the floor before missing his first shot attempt on a tip-in attempt with just over two minutes left in regulation.
VMI finished the conference schedule at 9-9 and will open play in next week’s SoCon Championships tournament on Saturday based tie breakers as either the No 5 or No. 6 seed. The bracket will be announced by the Southern Conference Sunday night following the conclusion of league play.
Postgame: VMI coach Dan Earl
“It was a tough night. Unfortunately, we allowed Western Carolina to drive the ball against us, which contributed to us giving up 46 points in the paint. Simply put, that is tough to overcome. Western’s Gilmore played outstanding with 25 pts and 14 rebounds. Collectively, we can’t allow that to happen. We also didn’t play at the right pace and didn’t have the ball moving enough on offense in the first half.
“We did pick up the energy in the second half and had good contributions from Louis Tang, Cooper Sisco and Brennan Watkins.
“Now it is time to regroup, try to get healthy, and get our mind right for the SoCon tournament. It’s a new season. I am looking forward to see what we can do.”
Share
Contributors
