Taylor leads East Tennessee State against VMI after 21-point game

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VMI Keydets (6-9, 1-1 SoCon) at East Tennessee State Buccaneers (10-5, 2-0 SoCon)

Johnson City, Tennessee; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: East Tennessee State faces VMI after Brian Taylor II scored 21 points in East Tennessee State's 77-71 victory over the Mercer Bears.

The Buccaneers are 8-1 on their home court. East Tennessee State has a 0-1 record in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Keydets have gone 1-1 against SoCon opponents. VMI is sixth in the SoCon with 23.7 defensive rebounds per game led by AJ Clark averaging 5.1.

East Tennessee State scores 78.1 points per game, 2.1 more points than the 76.0 VMI allows. VMI averages 10.3 more points per game (76.8) than East Tennessee State allows (66.5).

The Buccaneers and Keydets match up Wednesday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jaylen Smith averages 1.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Buccaneers, scoring 10.3 points while shooting 32.5% from beyond the arc. Taylor is shooting 48.0% and averaging 14.1 points over the past 10 games.

TJ Johnson is scoring 18.6 points per game with 7.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists for the Keydets. Linus Holmstrom is averaging 10.7 points and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 40.0% over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Buccaneers: 6-4, averaging 77.6 points, 32.2 rebounds, 15.1 assists, 8.5 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 48.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.1 points per game.

Keydets: 3-7, averaging 71.1 points, 31.7 rebounds, 11.7 assists, 6.3 steals and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting 39.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.9 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.