LEXINGTON, Va. - Charleston Southern scored 30 second-half points, combined with a defensive shut out in the fourth quarter to come from behind to beat VMI 37-28, Saturday afternoon at Foster Stadium. CSU improves to 4-5 on the season and after earning their first Big South victory, moves to 1-2 in Big South play. The Keydets lost their third-straight Big South game, falling to 2-7 on the season.

The two teams combined for over 1,000 total offensive yards, setting numerous Big South records in the process. Despite the losing effort, Tim Maypray shattered the Big South record for all-purpose yards, tallying 346 yards, including the third 200-yard receiving performance (209 yards on five catches) in the Conference.

For Charleston Southern, it was Sidney Bryant who again took the bulk of the snaps, completing 12 of his 20 pass attempts for 253 yards, a career-high and his first 200-yard performance of his career. It was Dee Brown that continued to dominate the Conference, gathering nine receptions for 177 yards and two scores.

Defensively for the Bucs, it was the linebacking duo of Jada Ross and Jonna Lee that each reached double figures with game highs of 15 and 12 tackles, respectively.

A week after surrendering a late-game drive in a losing effort at Gardner-Webb, the Bucs continued to push, much to the enjoyment of Coach Jay Mills.

"I am so proud of this team," said Mills. "The scoreboard hasn't reflected the heart and effort level of the play of these young men. This time it did. We talked last night, and at halftime, that life is full of tests, both with tests of prosperity and of adversity. The Lord brings tests to everyone, and our guys really rose to the challenge today and prospered."

After giving up a 71-yard drive to start the game, the CSU defense stiffened when it counted, forcing a 24-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right. After their own drive stalled, it was a couple of long plays that started the scoring, putting VMI up 7-0. Gabe Itoka got loose for a 44-yard run that set up a 34-yard pass up the middle to Maypray for the scoring strike on a three-play, 79-yard drive.

A 10-play, 72-yard answer came for the Bucs, capped with a one-yard pass from Eli Byrd to Vernon Huger in the corner of the endzone.

The Keydets tried to take the lead back, going for a fourth-and-three inside CSU territory, but a sack in the backfield by Jonna Lee gave the ball back to the Buccaneers.

Both defenses seemed to utilize the bend but don't break philosophy for the remainder of the half, as it appeared with :35 on the clock it would still be 7-7. A 69-yard screen pass to Maypray had other thoughts, though, as it set up a final scoring drive to give the home team a 14-7 lead at the break.

Despite a combined 472 yards of total offense between the two teams, there were only a combined 21 points on the scoreboard.

Turnovers costs CSU as a Bryant pass went over the head of Markus Murry and was intercepted on the three yardline by Keith Taylor. After getting the ball out of the shadow of their own goal, Hughes found Maypray down the right sideline, and he raced 87 yards to increase VMI's lead to the largest of the game at 21-7. The completion was the longest completion in Big South history, breaking a record held by Charleston Southern as Clint Chappel and Brad Moultrie connected in 2002 for 86 yards.

It took one play for CSU to answer as a big return by Gerald Stevenson set up a 64-yard touchdown pass to Dee Brown to pull CSU back to within a touchdown. Trying to keep the momentum, Nick Ellis tried and onside kick, recovering his own kick at the 39 yardline after it was touched by a Keydet player. Two plays later, CSU was in pay-dirt again, this time going 61 yards to Murry, who cut back into the middle of the field for the game-tying score.

Three third-down, and one fourth down conversions gave VMI a sustained drive of their own, going 59 yards on 13 plays to go ahead 28-21 as the expected offensive shootout started to take shape.

With its quick-strike offense, CSU used just five plays to again answer the call and tie the ball game at 28-28 with under 13 minutes to go.

CSU took their first lead of the game on a 53-yard fumble return by Okeba Rollinson. It was the second fumble return for a touchdown in as many weeks after Jada Ross went 77 yards against Gardner-Webb. The lead remained 34-28 after Ellis missed his first extra point of the season after starting the season 25-25.

"It's the scoop-and-score drill that we work on every day in practice," said Rollinson of his first-career touchdown. "It becomes instinctive to pick the ball up and run with it because we work on it so much."

Stopped fourth-and-long in their own territory, Mills decided to roll the dice to keep the hopes of a winning season alive with a fake punt, snapping the ball to Josh Warrior, who ran up the middle for 25 yards to convert. Demarcus Moon came right back to move the ball 34 yards down the field setting up a first down on the three yardline. It was Ellis who redeemed the earlier miss with a 22-yard field goal to make it a two-possession game with exactly 2:00 on the clock.

"We have said all along that missed opportunities have cost us this season," said Mills. "The coaching staff did a tremendous job restarting this team after a disappointing start, and encouraged them to keep pushing and good things would happen, and we saw that today."

The Bucs finish their season out at home, taking on future Big South member Presbyterian next week at 1:30 p.m., before the regular season finale against Coastal Carolina on Nov. 17.