CHARLESTON, S.C. – Trailing 74-73 in the closing seconds of the game, The Citadel handed the ball to Southern Conference Player of the Year contender Hayden Brown and the redshirt junior delivered, hitting a driving layup off a feed from Tyler Moffe with 1.1 seconds on the clock to give the Bulldogs a thrilling 75-74 win over archrival VMI inside McAlister Field House on Saturday afternoon.
 
Game Information
Final Score: The Citadel 75, VMI 74
Record: The Citadel (12-9, 5-9 SoCon), VMI (12-11, 7-7 SoCon)
Location: Charleston, S.C. (McAlister Field House)
Series: The Citadel leads 59-57
 
How It Happened

• The Citadel jumped out to an early lead on the Keydets after scoring 10 of the opening 14 points of the game, with Fletcher Abee and Hayden Brown each scoring four quick points to pace the run.
• The lead grew to as many as seven points, but VMI responded with a 9-0 run that spanned two minutes midway through the half. A trio of three-pointers made up the run, and Kamdyn Curfman's triple at the 9:44 mark gave VMI its first lead of the afternoon, 19-17.
• After trading the lead over the next several minutes, The Citadel finally gained a bit of separation with six straight points, capped with a jumper from Derek Webster, Jr., that left the Bulldogs with a 28-23 advantage with 2:55 left in the half.
• VMI erased the lead on two different occasions in the final two minutes of the half, but a pullup jumper from Kaiden Rice with 41 seconds left sent The Citadel into the locker room with a 32-30 edge.
• The Keydets took control of the game following the break, scoring 15 points in the first five and a half minutes to take a four-point lead, 45-41, after Greg Parham's putback layup fell with 14:21 on the clock.
• VMI largely maintained its lead and pushed it to as many as five points with 8:55 to play, but the Bulldogs continued to fight and used five unanswered points, punctuated by a three-point play from Rice, to take the lead back, 65-61, with 4:38 remaining.
• With The Citadel leading 73-69 just under the two-minute mark, VMI fired off five straight points and took the lead on Myles Lewis' three-point play with just 19 seconds remaining.
• On the final full possession of the game, Tyler Moffe flipped the ball to Brown at the top of the arc, and Brown drove through the middle of the Keydet defense, getting his finger-roll layup to fall with 1.1 seconds left on the clock. VMI had one last opportunity, but the heave from midcourt was well short to secure the victory for the Bulldogs.

 
Inside the Numbers

• Kaiden Rice notched his 10th 20-point game of the season and his third in a row with a game-high 20 points on Saturday afternoon. Despite shooting just 1-for-10 from three-point range, Rice did much of his damage inside, knocking down seven two-point shots, his most in a game this season.
• Fletcher Abee came up big for The Citadel with 19 points, just one shy of his season-high mark and his most against a SoCon opponent this season. After a stretch of three games in late January without hitting double digits, Abee now has 10 or more points in seven of his last eight outings.
• Hayden Brown knocked down the game-winning layup and finished with his 12th double-double of the season with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Brown's 12 double-doubles are the most by any player in the SoCon this season and rank tied for second in The Citadel's single-season history alongside Patrick Elmore.
• Brown's go-ahead shot with 1.1 seconds remaining was the first time that The Citadel has hit a game-winning shot in the final five seconds of a game since Quayson Williams hit a driving layup buzzer-beater to defeat VMI on Jan. 26, 2019.
• Tyler Moffe totaled his third double-double of the season and first with points and rebounds, finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday. The graduate student also added four assists and now has 84 for the season.
• Despite only scoring one point, Stephen Clark turned in a well-balanced stat line with seven rebounds, six assists and four blocks. Clark now has multiple blocks in five of his last six games, and his 45 blocks this season ranks seventh in program history.
• After surrendering 110 points in Lexington in the first game against VMI this season, The Citadel held the Keydets to just 74 on Saturday, 36 fewer than on Jan. 16.
• Saturday's victory was The Citadel's first by a single point since a 104-103 overtime victory at Wofford on Jan. 2, 2017.
• The Citadel held a three-point oriented VMI attack to just 23.3 percent shooting (7-for-30) from beyond the arc, the sixth time in conference play this season that the Bulldogs have held their opponent to under 30 percent from three-point range.
• The Citadel now has five wins in SoCon play this season, matching its highest total under Head Coach Duggar Baucom after previously hitting the mark in 2017-18.
• With 11 home victories inside McAlister Field House, The Citadel has its most in that category since tallying 12 during the 2001-02 campaign.

 
Up Next
The Citadel will face a very busy final week of the regular season with three games, two of which will be played on the road. The Bulldogs will travel to Mercer on Monday and Furman on Wednesday before returning back to McAlister Field House for their final home game of 2020-21 against Samford next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. That will be the lone meeting against Samford this season after the game in Birmingham was cancelled due to COVID issues within the Samford program on Jan. 23.