VMI opened its 2020-2021 season in impressive fashion Wednesday evening, posting a 90-63 victory over visiting St. Andrews University from Cameron Hall.
St. Andrews opened the game strong, scoring the first five points and later taking an 11-6 lead behind two three pointers from Isaac Clay. The Keydets quickly took control with a 13-0 run, fueled by a pair of treys from sophomore Kamdyn Curfman. VMI led 38-26 with 5:33 left in the half and closed out the first frame on a 14-2 surge to hold a 52-28 edge at intermission.
The Keydets netted the first 10 points of the second half and never looked back.
VMI had six players in double figures as the Keydets won their fifth-straight season opener in Cameron Hall.
Senior guard Ta’Vonne Bond scored a career and game-high 15 points for VMI, hitting 6-of-7 from the field. Myles Lewis and Greg Parham each posted 13 points, Curfman contributed 11 while Louis Tang and Trey Bonham added 10 each. The Keydets handed out 23 assists, just one shy of matching their season high from last year (Nov. 17, 2019 vs. UC Davis in 2 OT).
VMI nailed 13 three pointers, three each from Curfman, Parham and Bond. The Keydets forced 24 Knight turnovers, with Jake Stephens and Bonham each recording three steals.
Travis Thompson, Jr. paced St. Andrews with a team-best 14 points, while Clay added 11. Xzavier McFadden posted eight points and a game-high six rebounds.
The Keydets (1-0) travel to Penn State University Saturday for a non-conference game at 1 p.m.
Postgame: VMI coach Dan Earl
“I thought overall we did a good job. Early in they had some guys that made shots and we weren’t dialed in and playing their tendencies as we should have been. Once we locked in and played their tendencies I thought we did a good job. We moved the basketball really well and played unselfishly and defensively did a pretty good job communicating up until the last part of the game and we’ll get better and that but good to get our first game under our belt.”
“Passing up an okay shot for a great shot is what we try to do and having 23 assists was good but we also had 17 turnovers, but I thought for the most part we took care of it.”
“Myles Lewis gave us some good minutes and Ta’Vonne Bond came in and played his role very well.”
“It will be fun getting back to Happy Valley Saturday. I’m a proud Penn State alum and it will be good to play up there. I think our guys are excited. It’s fun to play any game at this point with all the precautions we are taking. I haven’t watch much film on them and I will start doing that now. Obviously, they are a Big Ten team and have a decent amount of returners back and they play physical so we are going to have to be even tougher defensively and on the boards up there, but we’ll expect to go at them.”
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