VMI Takes Down The Citadel for First SoCon Win

Working hard to earn an elusive win in conference play, the VMI basketball team registered its first Southern Conference victory of the season by defeating rival The Citadel by a 75-69 count Feb. 2 at McAlister Field House in Charleston, South Carolina.

The win is the first conference game victory for Andrew Wilson, head coach, who also picked up his first career road victory at the helm. It also snapped a 12-game losing skid for the Keydets, who opened SoCon play 0-10 between late December and through the month of January.

In a game that featured nine ties and 12 lead changes, the Keydets (6-18, 1-10) overcame an 11-point deficit early in the second half to come back and earn the win. A three-pointer by Taeshaud Jackson II ’26 at the 13:16 mark cut the deficit to three, and Rickey Bradley Jr. ’26 knotted the score at 54 apiece at the 11:58 mark on a step-back three to continue VMI’s momentum.

Sam Wolfe ’23 gave VMI its first lead of the second half only three moments later to make the score 57-54 and later gave VMI a big bucket off an offensive rebound that resulted in a lucky tip-in to make the score 59-57 in VMI’s favor. Tony Felder Jr. ’26 made two clutch three-pointers in the final three minutes to help VMI keep its lead late in the game and hold on for the win.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to get our first conference win against our archrival on the road tonight,” said Wilson. “I told the guys after the game how proud I was of them for sticking together. It’s been a tough three-to-four-week stretch for our team. We’ve been so close and knocking on the door. I told the guys to stay together, and it’s going to happen for us. We’re going to bust through that door. We finally did it tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of my guys. We’ve fought every single night. We just haven’t made enough plays down the stretch that we made tonight. Our guys have a certain amount of belief in each other. This feels really, really good.”

Key Points

• Jackson blasted his season-high total rebounds with 16 on the night, topping his prior high of 11.
• Tyler Houser ’26 logged a season-high 12 rebounds, besting his previous high of nine earned twice earlier this season.
• Sean Conway ’23 tallied 10 points in the win and now has 985 for his career, just 15 away from becoming the 45th Keydet in program history to earn 1,000 career points.
• Wolfe came up big for VMI with eight points during the contest, just one off from his career-high nine tallied earlier this season.

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared at vmikeydets.com.