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LEXINGTON, Va. -- The Samford University basketball team overcame a 13-point first-half deficit on Saturday to charge back for a critical 69-67 road victory against the VMI Keydets in a Southern Conference matchup held at Cameron Hall.
 
Samford (14-8, 5-4 SoCon) trailed VMI (5-15, 2-7 SoCon), 33-28, at the half, but used a 51.5-percent shooting performance from the field in the second frame to outscore the Keydets, 41-34.
 
With their win, the Bulldogs improved to 8-4 on the road this season, including an impressive 4-1 mark in SoCon play. Samford's lone road loss in conference play occurred at defending champion Chattanooga, 82-78, last week.
 
The Bulldogs finished with four players scoring in double figures Saturday as junior Demetrius Denzel-Dyson led the team with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field. Denzel-Dyson drained a game-high four 3-point baskets and is shooting 48.6 percent from 3-point range this season. Samford's 6-foot-5 guard also pulled down six rebounds in the victory.
 
Fellow junior Alex Thompson also turned in an impressive performance against VMI. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-8 sharpshooter tallied 17 points, six rebounds and a trio of steals, while knocking down 3-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc.
 
Samford true freshman Justin Hopkins proved to be valuable Saturday as the Bulldogs' athletic 6-foot-4 guard came off the bench to drop in 13 huge points in only 16 minutes of playing time.
 
Wyatt Walker, Samford's sophomore center from Jacksonville, Fla., nearly earned his 13^th double-double of the season by registering 11 points and nine rebounds. He also added three assists and a steal, while shooting 4-of-7 from the floor.
 
VMI jumped out to its early 21-8 lead midway through the first half behind a 12-point, first-half outburst from QJ Peterson, who is the SoCon's leading scorer for a second straight season. Peterson, who dropped in a game-high 40 points Wednesday in the Keydets' 80-64 road win at Chattanooga, finished with 21 points against Samford.
 
Peterson turned in a 9-of-19 performance from the field, but was only 2-of-8 from beyond the arc.
 
Samford's Josh Sharkey played a key role in limiting Peterson's output from long range. Sharkey, the Bulldogs' dynamic true freshman guard from Philadelphia, Pa., turned in some stifling defense Saturday and also scored four points off the bench.
 
Sharkey's biggest basket of the game occurred with just under two minutes remaining in the game as he scored on a jumper to give Samford a 69-65 lead. The bucket proved to be the Bulldogs' final score of the game.
 
With 1:26 remaining, Peterson scored on a driving layup to trim Samford's advantage to 69-67.
 
The teams then traded a pair of missed shots on back-to-back possessions before Peterson grabbed a rebound with 11 seconds left to play and pushed the ball ahead to find a wide open Armani Branch five feet from the basket with mere seconds remaining.
 
Branch fired off the possible game-tying jumper at the buzzer, but his shot fell short. With the miss, Samford secured the victory.
 
The Bulldogs tallied their 14^th win of the season Saturday and already tied their season win total from last year. Samford currently owns a 14-8 record with at least 10 games yet to play this year.
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs begin a two-game homestand against the Western Carolina Catamounts in a league contest to be held at the Pete Hanna Center.
 
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