ROANOKE, Va.- The Randolph women's basketball team traveled to Hollins on Wednesday evening. Both teams kept pace with each other but it was the WildCats who came out victorious in the end as they defeated HU 49-44.
With the win, Randolph improves to 12-4 overall and 7-3 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The seven conference wins are the most for the 'Cats since the 2016-17 season. Hollins drops to 7-6 overall and 3-5 in the ODAC.
Hollins led 7-6 with 4:24 remaining in the first period but Randolph went on a 10-3 run to close out the quarter and led 16-10. Hollins scored the first two baskets of the second quarter to make the score 16-14. An 11-0 run by the 'Cats gave Randolph its biggest lead of the evening, 27-14, with 1:31 showing on the clock. The WildCats led 27-15 at halftime. The first two baskets of the quarter were the only field goals made by Hollins as they missed eight shots from the floor.
HU cut into the WildCats' advantage in the third quarter as they scored four straight points to make it 27-19 with under seven minutes on the clock. That was part of a 13-2 run by Hollins to cut the score to 28-27 with 2:25 on the game clock. It was a one-possession contest, 32-29, heading into the final quarter of play.
A jumper by Kylie Stark (Lynchburg, Va./Brookville) to start the fourth quarter gave Randolph a 34-29 lead. Hollins made it a one-possession game with under seven minutes remaining. A 6-0 WildCat run put Randolph ahead 40-32 with 4:57 left to play. After a Hollins layup made it 40-34, a three by Cameron O'Neil (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) upped the WildCat lead to 43-34 with just over three minutes to play. Hollins closed to 43-39 but Randolph went 6-of-8 from the charity stripe in the final 39 seconds to fend off the threat.
"Thank goodness our defense travels," said head coach Steve Lanpher. "On a night when we came out a little flat and struggled offensively both shooting the ball and with ball security, we contained and contested well enough to come away with a conference road win."
Randolph shot 16-of-53 (30.2%) from the floor and 7-of-23 (30.4%) from behind the three-point arc. Hollins was 14-of-60 (23.3%) overall but just 3-of-26 (11.5) in three-point attempts. They did perform well from the free throw line with a 13-of-18 (72.2%) performance. Hollins outrebounded the WildCats 45-44.
O'Neil led the 'Cats with 16 points. Cierra Cook (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) added eight points and two steals. Teniyah Crenshaw-Patterson (Newport News, Va./Heritage) finished with eight points and grabbed seven rebounds. Alana Melendez (Weste Haverstraw, NY/North Rockland) also scored eight points and pulled down seven rebounds. Yanessa Cabrera (Manassas, Va./Stonewall Jackson) had seven rebounds and seven steals.
"Kylie uncharacteristically got in early foul trouble but we got a huge lift off the bench from first year Alana Melendez who played a season-high 23 minutes," noted Lanpher. "Cam once again found her shooting touch hitting four threes and especially two big ones in the fourth quarter. Yanessa played ferocious defense all night."
The WildCats travel to Harrisonburg on Saturday to face Eastern Mennonite. Game time will be at 2:00 p.m. Randolph won the last meeting 59-43 on November 17.