FARMVILLE, VA – No. 10 Randolph-Macon built a 21 point second half lead and held off a late rally by Hampden-Sydney as the Yellow Jackets knocked off the archrival Tigers 70-68 Saturday night before a sellout crowd in Farmville.

The Yellow Jackets have now won 12 games in a row to improve to 16-2 overall and 9-1 in the ODAC.  R-MC has now beaten the Tigers in 11 of the last 13 regular season meetings of the two storied rivals.  The Tigers drop to 9-7 and 2-6 in the league.

Danny Jones led the way for R-MC with 18 points, while fellow post player Brandon Braxton scored 12 points in the win.  Jordan Brown had nine points, Adam Desgain had eight and Calvin Croskey, Ericm Pugh and Lamar Giggetts each had seven.

Hampden-Sydney was paced by Harrison George who had a game-high 20 points in a losing effort. Reserve Randall Ward had 14 points, while Ben Jesse and Patrick Corrigan chipped in with 11 and 10 points for the Tigers as well.

With the score 17-15 in favor of Hampden-Sydney, Desgain drained a three-pointer, which sparked a 19-4 run that was capped by a Croskey trifecta that put R-MC up 34-21 with just under two minutes to go in the first half, before a Jesse three sent the teams to the locker room with the score 34-24.

H-SC came out in the second stanza and cut the R-MC advantage to eight at 40-32 on a Jesse three-pointer with just under 18 minutes to go in the game.

The Yellow Jackets responded with a 17-4 run over the next six minutes, pushing ahead 57-36 on a Jones bucket with 12:55 to go in the game.

After a Jones jumper with 12 minutes on the clock put R-MC up 59-39, H-SC scored an 18-4 run, with the Tigers cutting their deficit to 63-57 on a Ward three pointer with 5:23 to play.

R-MC got back-to-back buckets from Braxton and  Croskey to go back up by 11 at 68-57 with 4:20 left on the clock.

The Croskey basket proved to be the last of the night for R-MC as H-SC rallied again, using an 11-2 run to pull within two at 70-68 with 57 seconds to go.

After R-MC missed a pair of free-throws with 28 seconds to play, H-SC had a chance to tie or go ahead by the Yellow Jackets came up with a defensive stop to seal the win.

Randolph-Macon will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Roanoke at 7:00 p.m. in Ashland.

-Yellow Jackets-