Box Score BOX SCORE
LEXINGTON, Va. – The Samford men's basketball team picked up a much-needed Southern Conference road win at VMI, downing the Keydets by a score of 89-82 Friday evening at Cameron Hall.
Six of the eight Samford players that saw action in the game scored in double figures.
Demetrius Denzel-Dyson and
Josh Sharkey shared the team lead with 16 points each.
Alex Thompson scored 14 points, while
Eric Adams scored 13 points,
Triston Chambers had 11 points and
Justin Coleman contributed 10 points to the win.
For VMI, Austin Vereen scored a game-high 21 points. Bubba Parham had 19 points, while Tyler Creammer and Myles Lewis added 13 points each for the Keydets.
Samford led for the majority of the game, holding the advantage for 38:27 of the 40-minute game.
In the first half, Samford built as much as a 10-point lead at 41-31 with 2:24 to play in the half. The Bulldogs held a 44-38 advantage heading into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Samford pushed its lead out to 14 points at 54-40 with 17:03 to play. VMI fought back to cut the lead to just four points at 59-55 with 12:21 left in the contest. Samford, however, scored the next seven points to extend its lead to 11 points at 66-55 with 9:14 to go.
Samford led by as many as 15 points down the stretch at 75-60 and 80-65, but VMI used a late run to close to within five points at 87-82 with just 11 seconds to go. Sharkey, however, made two late free throws to help put the game away at 89-82.
As a team, Samford shot 48.4 percent from the floor, while VMI made just 39.1 percent of its shots. The Bulldogs made 34.6 percent of its three-point attempts, while holding VMI to just 27.3 percent from beyond the arc. Samford won the rebounding, battle, 48-44.
With the win, Samford improves to 10-20 overall and 6-11 in Southern Conference play. VMI falls to 8-20 overall and 3-14 in league games.
Samford will wrap up its regular season schedule by playing at UNCG Sunday. The game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. (CT) start from Greensboro, N.C.
