The 3-on-2 drill, usually seen only in practices, made an extended appearance last night at the University of Richmond.

VMI last season led Division I in scoring (93.8 ppg), 3-pointers (13.7 per game) and steals (14.2 spg). For encore, the Keydets want to play faster, shoot more 3s and create more turnovers. “We’re just small, and we need to play to our advantage,“ said coach Duggar Baucom, whose Keydets meet the University of Richmond tonight at the Robins Center. “Playing fast, putting pressure on people, is to our best advantage. We really were not as fast as we wanted to be last year.“

Virginia Military Institute plans to review its training procedures following the death of a freshman who collapsed after completing a 10-mile march.

HARRISONBURG - Justin Thorpe threw one touchdown pass and ran for another, helping James Madison score the game’s first 22 points en route to a 22-14 win over Maine yesterday. Thorpe was 9 for 13 with 133 yards and two interceptions for the Dukes ( 2-4 CAA, 4-5), and he added 83 yards rushing on 17 carries. The James Madison quarterback rushed for a 42-yard touchdown to put the Dukes up 9-0 midway through the second quarter after a getting a safety earlier in the frame. Dixon Wright kicked field goals of 23 and 38 yards to put the Dukes up 15-0 with 16 seconds before halftime.

NORFOLK—Dennis Brown ran for three touchdowns and passed for two more yesterday to lead Norfolk State to a 46-6 victory over Hampton. Brown was 18 of 21 for 229 yards and threw scoring passes of 71 and 4 yards to Chris Bell, who finished with five catches for 108 yards. Brown set a school record by completing 85.7 percent of his passes.

William and Mary coach Jimmye Laycock calls the national exposure the fifth-ranked Tribe will get from Saturday’s televised game (Versus Network) at No.2 Villanova “kind of an extra thing.“ He’s more concerned about the test the Tribe will get from the Wildcats. William and Mary, 1-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association and 4-0 overall, hasn’t beaten Villanova (1-0, 4-0) in the past four meetings.

William and Mary football coach Jimmye Laycock didn’t really address the topic of a letdown against Central Connecticut State last week. The Tribe upset Virginia 26-14 in its opener. While Laycock thought his team played “OK” against Central Connecticut State, it was able to roll 33-14. “Well, we went back and practiced,“ he said. “I don’t know if we did anything different than we would have done if we had not won at Virginia. . . . I thought our guys handled it very, very well.

TODAY’S  STATE GAMES
  Where: Foster Stadium
(cap. 10,000), Lexington
  When: 1:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 reserved, $17 general admission, $10 youth/student
  Radio: WLEE (990), 1
  Records: Season opener
  Facts: VMI beat Robert Morris 40-13 in the only meeting in 2007. The Colonials, 5-6 a year ago, have 18 starters returning and are picked to finish fifth in the Northeast Conference. VMI has won its past four openers.

Unlike many cadets, Christelle Ndongo won’t be entering into the biggest challenge of her life when she enrolls at VMI this fall. The Rat Line, the uniforms and the discipline don’t intimidate her. “Emotionally, it won’t be hard for me to go to VMI because I’ve gone through things much harder than that,“ she said. Three years ago, Ndongo (pronounced DON-go) left her family in Cameroon to live in Florida and play basketball. Suffering from homesickness, she then followed her brother Franck, a VCU basketball player at the time and her only family member in the United States, to Richmond.

An enduring image of Eugene P. Trani will be part of his legacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. A life-size bronze statue of the retiring Virginia Commonwealth University president has been installed in the life sciences building that bears his name. The $60,000 sculpture was financed entirely by VCU donors and initially had been part of a project documenting the school’s history, VCU spokeswoman Pam Lepley said. The statue was included in that effort because Trani has been president for nearly half of VCU’s 40-year history, she said.

Robert B. Wray III, a second-year cadet at Virginia Military Institute and a graduate of James River High School in Chesterfield County, is the first recipient of the John Marshall Cadet Memorial Scholarship. The grant was recently created by the John Marshall Cadet Alumni Association with a gift of $250,000 to the VMI Foundation.

Tuition for in-state cadets at Virginia Military Institute will increase by 5.8 percent for the 2009-2010 academic year.

RADFORD—The Virginia Military Institute Keydets are one win away from their first NCAA tournament berth since 1977 after a 78-58 victory over the Liberty Flames tonight in a Big South tournament semifinal game tonight at Radford’s Dedmon Center. The Keydets held Liberty’s best player, Seth Curry, scoreless after halftime as they pulled away. They play Radford or North Carolina-Asheville in Saturday’s 4 p.m. final.

CLINTON, S.C.—The Presbyterian Blue Hose held the nation’s highest-scoring team to 15 first-half points and went on to beat the Virginia Military Institute Keydets 63-57 tonight. The Keydets had been averaging more than 95 points per game. Chase Holmes scored 24 points to lead the Blue Hose. Pierre Miller added 13 points and Al’Lonzo Coleman had 12 for the Blue Hose (11-15, 8-7 Big South Conference), who snapped a three-game losing streak.

ROCK HILL, S.C.—Chavis Holmes scored 26 points, and combined with brother Travis to spark Virginia Military in the final minutes of overtime, helping the Keydets to a 110-106 win over Winthrop Wednesday night. After Chavis Holmes hit five free throws in the final 34 seconds of regulation to help VMI (9-2 Big South Conference, 18-4) get to overtime, he and his sibling kept the Keydets ahead in the extra frame.