Sophomore guard Bubba Parham scored 33 points Tuesday evening to lead the VMI men’s basketball team to a 106-80 victory over visiting Kentucky Christian University in a non-conference contest.
Parham was just two points short of his career-high 35 points, set Sunday against the University of Kentucky, ranked #10 in NCAA Division 1. He has 68 points and 15 three-pointers in his last two games and has 10 career games with 20 points or more.
Against Kentucky Christian, Parham had 20 first-half points to give the Keydets a 58-39 halftime edge. The Knights cut the lead to 78-65 with 10:37 remaining on the game clock, but a quick 10-2 VMI run put the game out of reach. Parham nailed five three pointers, sank 10-of-11 free throws, and added six rebounds on the night.
Garrett Gilkeson had one of two Keydet double doubles with 15 points, shooting 5-of-6 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the three-point line, with 10 rebounds. Tyler Creammer contributed 12 points and a career and game-high 14 boards, while Myles Lewis scored 13. Greg Parham tallied 11 points and five assists and Sarju Patel came off the bench to add 10 points as six Keydets reached double figures. Ta’Vonne Bond and Connor Arnold each posted six points.
Juran Ligonde scored a team-high 23 points for Kentucky Christian (1-11) with five rebounds and two blocks. Connor Maddox netted 15 points and Owens Crawford had 11 points and six boards.
VMI shot 51 percent (39-76) from the field, while holding the visitors to 39 percent (27-70).
The Keydets (4-2) travel to Florida on Friday to face Stetson University at 1 p.m.
Postgame: VMI coach Dan Earl
“My hats off to Kentucky Christian. They played hard as can be and made some shots and got their confidence going and I didn’t think we responded well. We were worried about it as a coaching staff the last two days. Fortunately, we pulled it out and I think Garrett Gilkeson gave us some good minutes as far as being tough and talking on defense and getting the guys going. But we did not have the energy we need and fortunately we pulled out the win but it was very much a learning experience.”
“Offensively, all night long I thought we were pretty decent and they (Kentucky Christian) can score the ball, but to give up 80 points is tough. We switched to a man-to-man later in the game to try to get our energy going and Greg Parham had two nice layups that kind of broke it open a little bit more.”
“We had a size advantage going in but unfortunately we were hoisting up threes rather than driving the basket, throwing it inside, muscling it up and going strong.”
“We just want to play to the best of our ability throughout and have a lot to learn from this experience.”
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