LEXINGTON, Va. - Sophomore Chase Holmes poured in a team-high 21 points one
game after being shutout for just the second time in his career. However, it
was not enough as Presbyterian College fell 97-78 at VMI Thursday evening.
The Blue Hose (4-20, 2-10) were led by Holmes' team high. JakeTroyli and Khalid
Mutakabbir each chipped in 12 in the loss. The Keydets (8-14, 3-9) were guided
by Austin Kenon and Stan Okoye, who each tallied a game-high 23 points. Five
VMI student-athletes reached double figures.
Travis Smith and Jay Reynolds each pulled down a team-best five rebounds while
Kevin Davis dished out a team-high five assists.
PC jumped out to an 11-3 lead just 3:40 into the contest after Troyli nailed a
jumper off a pass from Mutakabbir. After trailing 1-0, Troyli hit a short shot
to give the Blue Hose a 2-1 lead. Hargrave and Mutakabbir then hit back-to-back
shots. VMI drained a shot, but Hargrave took a pass from Troyli and drilled a
shot from behind the arc for the six-point advantage.
Things continued to look good for PC as the lead slowly climbed to double
figures. Jay Reynolds made an inside bucket for a 16-5 advantage. The visitors
widened the lead to 14 on Walt Allen's lay-up. However, the lead started to
dwindle as the Keydets reeled off a 12-0 run thanks in part to back-to-back
three-point shots.
Up by four a fast-break basket by Holmes, Michael Sparks canned a three pointer
to trim the margin to one. He then buried another shot from downtown to put the
home team up 28-26 halfway through the first half. After the 10-0 run by VMI,
the Keydets from themselves ahead 30-26.
PC trimmed the margin to one on a foul shot by Smith with 7:39 to play in the
opening half. However, VMI outscored the Blue Hose 25-8 over the final few
minutes for a 57-39 lead at the intermission.
At the break, Mutakabbir had posted a team-high 10 points while Holmes had
already netted eight off the bench.
The Blue Hose cut the deficit to 16 with 16:39 to go, but VMI went on a 5-0
spurt over the next 34 seconds to go ahead 67-46. It was as close as the
visitors would come in the final period.
With the score at 71-54, VMI embarked on a 17-0 run to put the contest out of
reach despite the Blue Hose fighting the entire 40 minutes.
In the game, Travis Smith missed just his second free throw of the Big South
Conference season, going 1-2 in the opening half.
For the game, PC drained 54.5 percent of its shots, hitting on 30-of-55
attempts from the floor. The squad also connected on six-of-15 shots from
downtown. VMI hit on 34-of-69 shots from the floor for 49.3 percent. The home
team drained 18-of-44 shots from behind the arc for 40.9 percent.
The Blue Hose return to action Saturday night at 7 p.m., at Liberty.
