ETTRICK, Va. – In front of a nice VSU Multipurpose Center crowd, Virginia State secured its non-conference action victory over King University 83-72 this evening.

Led by a combined 42 points from Cyonte Melvin (16), William Vedder (14) and Brandon Holley (12), Virginia State (10-3, 2-0 CIAA) led King University (8-5, 1-2 Conference Carolinas) by as many as 12 points en route to a 11-point victory Saturday evening.

Cyonte Melvin, Philip Owens and Lual Rahama finished with adding six rebounds for the Trojans each.  Jackson grabbed four rebounds for VSU to finish the contest.

After taking a three-point deficit into the halftime interval, Virginia State continued to build on its lead as back-to-back layups by William Vedder pushed the lead to five (58-53) in favor of the Trojans.

The Trojans continued to clamp down defensively as they limited the Tornados to just 33.3 percent shooting in the second half and allowing just three three pointers on 13 attempts. King University finished seven-of-24 in the game.

Virginia State was able to knock down four of the eight three pointers in the second half shooting 50 percent from the three point line.

Melvin joined Holley and Vedder in double figures converting on 3-of-4 attempts from the field in the first half, finishing the first 15 minutes of play. Melvin also finished shooting two-of-three from the three point line in his first half performance.


DIMES FOR DAYS: Virginia State registered 13 assists in the win over King. Six VSU players who notched more than two minutes of court time had an assist in the game with Melvin finishing with four.


CHARITY STRIPE: Virginia State converted 16-of-24 free throw attempts in the game as the Trojans helped build their first half lead from the charity stripe. They knocked down three-of-six tries in the first half as King fouled Virginia State nine times including three drawn by Jahmere Howze, William Vedder and Andrew Corum.

KEY STATS

- VSU shot 48.3 percent from the field; King shot 42.1 percent
- Virginia hit nine triples (39.1 percent); King knocked down seven threes on 29.2 percent shooting
- The Trojans were 16-for-24 at the free throw line while the Tornadoes were 17-for-21
- VSU held a 33-24 rebounding advantage; the Tornadoes had 11 turnovers to VSU's eight

UP NEXT

The Trojans will next travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Thursday, January 10th for a CIAA conference matchup against the Rams of Winston-Salem State University. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. at C.E. Gaines Center.


For the most up-to-date information on VSU men's basketball please visit www.govsutrojans.com and follow Trojans Athletics on Twitter @VSUsports.