Randolph Men's Basketball Earns Big 67-52 Road Victory Over Washington & Lee Saturday

                LEXINGTON, VA – The Randolph College men's team stayed undefeated on the season, both overall and in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play, with an impressive 67-52 road victory over Washington and Lee University Saturday afternoon from the Warner Center.

                Randolph (5-0/2-0 ODAC) tied the 2009-10 season for the best start to a season in program history which also went 5-0, while earning wins in its first two conference contests for the third time in as many years. The WildCats also upped their record over W&L to 6-1, and they are now 4-0 in Lexington all time.

                The WildCats and Generals (3-2/1-1 ODAC) exchangeed leads five times in the first half before Randolph went on a 12-2 run over a four minute stretch to take a 25-15 lead. First-year Corey Brown (Williamsburg, VA/Walsingham) led the WildCats over the run, as he scored five points. The Generals would make a run of their own though, making the game 32-28 just before the halftime buzzer on a three from Javon McDonald.

                Washington and Lee came out of the gate and was able to tie the game on a pair of occasions, but could not take a lead. With 16:02 left and the game tied at 36, Randolph held the Generals without a point for over four minutes, scoring eight of its own to take a 44-36 lead with 11:58 left in the contest.

                The host Generals made another run, scoring the next five points, all from Kevin Gill to pull to within three. Randolph again pushed its edge back up to seven with six minutes to play thanks to a lay-up from Colton Hunt (Whittier, NC/Smoky Mountain). Sophomore Javon McDonald hit back-to-back triples to pull the hosts to within three, but first-year Evan Horn (Westminster, MD/Winters Mill) hit a big trifecta to put the WildCats back up by six with 2:57 left

                Hunt, who was hindered much of the afternoon, would put a stamp on the contest with just over a minute left. Hunt pick-pocketed W&L's JD Ey on defense and took the breakaway pass from Zach Walton (Timberville, VA/Broadway) for a lay-up plus the foul to put Randolph up 11 with just over a minute to go. Hunt posted 15 of his 24 points in the second half, including eight in the last two minutes of the contest.

                Hunt finished the game seven-of-15 on the contest, making 10-of-11 from the charity stripe. The senior guard has now posted 20-plus points in all but one of the five games this year. Junior Mike Ehilegbu (Raleigh, NC/Ravenscroft) bounced back from an off game Wednesday to score 16 points and grab a team-high seven rebounds.

                Senior center Chris Battaglia (Smithfield, VA/Portsmouth) chalked up seven points, six caroms, and two blocks and Horn and Brown posted nine and seven points, respectively. Randolph turned the ball over only 12 times, a season-low, while shooting 22-of-49 (44.9 percent) from the field. The WildCats were also strong from the stripe, making 18-of-20 from the line.

                W&L was spearheaded by the 13 points from McDonald, who made three of his six attempts from downtown. Andrew Franz, making his first collegiate start, scored eight points, and Ey had six points and a game-high nine rebounds. Randolph's defense held W&L to only 31 percent (18-58) shooting, including just 26.7 percent in the second half.

                The WildCats will look to earn their best start in program history on Monday, when they head to Front Royal, VA for a 5 p.m. tip with the Crusaders of Christendom College.

--RANDOLPH--