VMI Scores Huge Upset In Tourney

Keydets Complete Biggest Turnaround In Program History

The Virginia Military Institute men’s basketball team made an impressive run to the semifinals of the Southern Conference tournament before ending its season with an 85-65 loss to Wofford on Sunday night at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C. The Keydets concluded the year at 15-19 overall and 7-11 in the SoCon.

VMI entered the tournament as the No. 7 seed and faced No. 10 The Citadel (5-25 overall, 0-18 SoCon) in the first round on Friday night. The Keydets earned their first SoCon tournament win in four years with a 73-62 victory over the Bulldogs.

Tan Yildizoglu led VMI with 17 points and six assists while pulling down nine rebounds, while TJ Johnson scored 16 points and grabbed nine boards. Also scoring in double figures for the Keydets were Rickey Bradley Jr. with 13 points and AJ Clark with 10.

The victory marked VMI’s first time defeating The Citadel three times in a single season since the 201415 campaign.

After the win, Andrew Wilson, in his third season as VMI’s head coach, said, “I’m an unbelievably proud coach right now. Our program has been through a lot. This is the first tournament victory for VMI in a long time, and it’s a big step for us.”

VMI 64, UNC-G 57

The Keydets played gritty basketball to earn a hardfought 64-57 victory over No. 2 seed the University of North Carolina at Greensboro on Saturday afternoon in the SoCon Tournament quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals Sunday.

With the win, the Keydets advanced to the semifinals for the first time in four years. The victory marked the first time since the 2002-03 season that VMI had won two SoCon Tournament games to advance to the semifinals, although the most recent occurrence came from the 2011-12 team which earned two tournament wins as a member of the Big South.

On Saturday, VMI started the game well and led 28-19 at halftime. UNC-Greensboro (20-12, 13-5), which had defeated the Keydets in both regular-season meetings, chipped away at the lead in the second half, but VMI held on for the win. The victory snapped VMI’s six-game losing streak to the Spartans.

Bradley Jr. led VMI with 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Augustinas Kiudulas scored 19 points, and Yildizoglu added 11 points and led the Keydets with five assists.

“We fought through a lot of adversity tonight, as we have all season,” said Wilson. “To hold this UNCGreensboro team to 57 points – what a defensive effort from our guys. We knew this was going to be a rock fight. That’s the way they play.”

“This is a great moment for our guys” he continued. “I told them in the locker room, there’s not a group of kids in college basketball who deserve this moment as much as our guys, and I’m so proud of them.”

Wofford 85, VMI 65

VMI’s season came to a close with an 85-65 loss to No. 6 Wofford in the SoCon semifinals on Sunday night.

With the win, Terriers (1815, 10-8), who had split a pair of regular-season games with VMI, advanced to face No. 5 Furman (26-8, 11-7) in the championship game on Monday night.

VMI kept pace with the Terriers for the opening 10 minutes but then went cold midway through the first half, as the Keydets went over six minutes without a field goal, staying in contention by way of free throws. During the VMI scoring drought, the Terriers took advantage and pulled ahead, 37-21, a t t he 5:47 mark t o force a VMI timeout following a Luke Flynn threepointer.

The Terriers were effective in the paint early on and scored 18 points in penetration while Corey Tripp logged 13 points in the first half by hitting three of four three-pointers.

VMI hit 11-of-13 free throws in the first half, but shot 35 percent (7-of-20) from the field. Wofford led 44-29 at halftime.

During the second half, the Keydets continued to show fight and hustle, but the Terriers continuously responded with 3-pointers and big shots on the other end to gradually build an insurmountable 25-point lead with 11:19 left in regulation.

Bradley Jr. led VMI with 21 points, while Kiudulas scored 20 points, and Yildizoglu chipped in 12.

The Keydets went 4-28 last year, so this season has still featured the biggest turnaround in the program’s history. The 11-win improvement eclipses the 10-win improvement VMI had when it followed up a 14-win season in 2007-08 with a 24-victory season in 2008-09.