VIRGINIA BEACH -- It was a game for about 10 minutes Sunday at the Jane P. Batten Student Center on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan College.

After that, it was all Virginia Wesleyan as the host Marlins rolled to a 99-47 non-conference victory over the Fords of Pennsylvania's Haverford College. It was the 11th consecutive victory for VWC, currently ranked No. 2 nationally.

Virginia Wesleyan (11-1) opened the second half with a stunning 25-0 run in the first five minutes to open up a 74-27 lead that was never threatened the rest of the way.  Tenacious defense ignited the decisive run as VWC's pressure helped force eight Haverford turnovers that were converted to points at the other end of the court.  Junior Tre' Ford (Falls Church, Va./J.E.B. Stuart) and sophomore D.J. Woodmore (Virginia Beach/Landstown) both scored seven points in the surge, junior Chris Astorga (Suffolk, Va./Virginia Beach Cape Henry Collegiate) added six points, and senior Donald Vaughn (Woodbridge, Va./Dumfries Potomac) scored five points.

Two free throws by Gibby Graves (Chappaqua, N.Y./Phillips Academy Andover, Mass.) ended the scoreless drought for Haverford (4-9), but it was only temporary.  Virginia Wesleyan head coach Dave Macedo began to go to his bench frequently in the last 15 minutes and the fresh players responded, taking the Marlins to their largest lead at 96-41 with 4:13 still remaining to be played.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, 18 Marlins competed and 14 scored.  Junior Jordan Griggs (Chesapeake, Va./Hickory) and sophomore Colby Heard (Virginia Beach/Tallwoood) both came off the bench to score career-high totals of seven and five points, respectively. 

But, high scoring honors for the Marlins belong to Woodmore, who tallied 21 points, hitting double figures for the eighth consecutive game.  He nailed 9-of-12 field goal attempts, including a pair of triples. Vaughn was next in line with season-high 18 points, connecting on 8-of-11 field goal attempts.  He also led all rebounding with 10 en route to recording his second consecutive double-double.  Astorga rounded out the Marlins' double digit scorers, recording 11 points for his ninth consecutive double figure game.

Haverford, which faced VWC for the first time ever in basketball, started off well.  Bo Friddell (Norfolk, Va./Norfolk Academy), Cam Baker (Columbus, Ohio/Columbus Academy), Louis Cipriano (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross), and Ian Goldberg (Manhattan, N.Y./Poly Prep) helped carry the Fords through the first 10 minutes, staying within seven points of the Marlins.

That was as close as it would get however, as Teasley knocked down a triple off a Ford assist, sparking a 20-0 run that catapulted Virginia Wesleyan into a 44-17 lead.  Seven Marlins scored in the run, which included a monster dunk by senior Ali Brown (Hampton, Va./Kecoughtan).  Senior Jason Burns (Clinton, Md./Fredrick Douglass) and Woodmore led the surge with four points each.

Haverford came back behind three-point shooting from Goldberg to pull the deficit under 20 points, but VWC out-scored the Fords 5-2 in the final 1:17 to take a 49-27 lead into the halftime break.

Goldberg and Cipriano scored nine points each to lead Haverford, which entered the game averaging 61.3 points per outing.  James Levine (Natick, Mass./Natick) led the Fords on the boards with five rebounds.

Virginia Wesleyan returns to competition on Wednesday, Jan. 11, traveling to Lynchburg, Va. to face the WildCats of Randolph College in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference game beginning at 7 p.m.

--AMDG--