The VMI men’s basketball team faced a tough early-season test Friday evening at traditional powerhouse Pitt, with the Panthers posting a 94-55 win from the Petersen Events Center.
Keydet sophomore guard Bubba Parham scored a team-best 16 points, hitting a trio of three-pointers. Junior post player Tyler Creammer had 12 points to go along with five rebounds and sophomore Greg Parham had a full stat line of 11 points, four assists and four steals. Junior Garrett Gilkeson posted nine points, a team-high eight rebounds and three steals.
Bubba Parham opened the game with a jumper 26 seconds in, but the Panthers answered with a 12-0 run. Pitt led 42-24 at the half and used a 19-3 surge to go ahead 61-27 with 14:34 left in the contest.
Jared Wilson-Frame netted a game-best 20 point to pace Pitt (2-0). Xavier Johnson had 14 points and 10 assists and Au’Diese Toney also had 14 points to go along with eight rebounds.
Pitt shot 64 percent from the floor, including 52 percent from behind the three-point arc, while VMI hit just 34 percent (20-59) from the field and 20 percent from three-point range. The Panthers controlled the boards, 42-21.
VMI (1-1) is back in action Sunday, hosting Goucher College at 1 p.m. in Cameron Hall.
Postgame: VMI coach Dan Earl
“There’s a lot to learn from a game like this. We missed shots early in the first half against their bigger bodies but I thought we worked hard to get better shots in the second half. We were going east to west too much in the first half and in the second half we drove downhill and made good decisions and got better shots but, unfortunately, we didn’t knock down enough.”
“We talk to our guys about getting better every possession, every game. We can take a lot to learn from this across the board. While it was tough to take, I think our kids will keep their heads up and continue to learn from it.”
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