By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — In an atmosphere that felt quite like a Marietta home game, the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets came out on fire, hitting eight of their first 10 shots and rebounding both misses. They got out to an 18-point lead just before the second media timeout, which proved to be a theme for the evening.

This matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the D3hoops.com Top 25 was a rematch of a game in November, which Randolph-Macon won on Marietta’s home floor.

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This game looked very much the same, with the Pioneers limiting Buzz Anthony and forcing his teammates to step up.

“Ian Robertson continues to be our Achilles heel,” said Marietta coach Jon VanderWal after the game. “He’s the best player in the country when he plays us.” Robertson’s 22 points eclipsed the 20 he had in November and is well above his six points per game average on the season.

The shooting totals evened out as the first half came to an end and Marietta carried over the momentum from the first half, cutting the deficit to 10 at the break and six shortly thereafter. Anthony was able to take control of the game, slow the pace, and get his Yellow Jackets back into rhythm. He said the focus was just, “getting back to making them make a tough shot.”

Tough shots they were. Marietta shot 33% for the game, while Randolph-Macon was able to make half their shots, including 64% in the second half.

On Hoopsville last week, Marietta’s Lukas Isaly described the first meeting between the two as “trading haymakers.” That continued in this game until Marietta punched itself out.

Miles Mallory and Daniel Mbangue defend Lukas Isaly, who had 23 points but was just 2-for-7 from deep. Photo by Doug Sasse, d3photography.com

A big part of that is the quiet excellence of Randolph-Macon’s Miles Mallory down low. One of the elite defenders in the country, he also comes through whenever his team needs him to score and no one is quite sure what his ceiling will be.

RMC coach Josh Merkel says of Mallory: “He’s the most competitive guy. He hunts competition and he lives in the gym. He loves defending.”

Miles Mallory finished with 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting and had eight rebounds for Randolph-Macon. Photo by Doug Sasse, d3photography.com

As they’ve done throughout the tournament, Merkel’s squad wear opponents down, going on second half runs to put the game out of reach. After two huge Robertson threes in the second half, the lead once again hit 18 and despite Marietta’s repeated and relentless attacks on the basket, they were never able to make much of a dent.

The final score was 81-63. Randolph-Macon advances to play the winner of Elmhurst and Wabash at 6 p.m. ET tomorrow, March 19, in the national championship game.

“We’ve talked a lot about being a buzzsaw at the end of the year,” says Merkel. “We want to be the best when the best is needed. I tell the guys to ‘trust your training.’ I don’t think I looked up at the score during the game. If we’re playing to the standard, the score will take care of itself.”

For Randolph-Macon, that standard has been far higher than any other team can play up to. Despite being the seventh-winningest team in Division III men’s basketball history, this is just their second trip to the Final Four and now they’ll get their first crack and the national title tomorrow.

Obviously, anything can happen in a national championship game, but whoever faces the Yellow Jackets will be fighting an uphill battle.

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