VIRGINIA BEACH -- Virginia Wesleyan College's dominance on the backboards Wednesday led to a program-record performance against a perplexed Lynchburg College team that could not get much of anything to drop through the hoop.

Virginia Wesleyan, ranked No. 4 nationally by BennettRank and No. 10 by D3hoops.com, recorded 35 rebounds in the first half and finished with 66 en route to a 93-66 Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) victory over the Hornets at the Jane P. Batten Student Center.

The 66 rebounds broke one of the longest standing marks in the VWC men's basketball record book, topping the 61 rebounds recorded against the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 1974. Senior Trent Batson(Lewes, Del./Cape Henlopen)led the Marlins' effort against Lynchburg, pulling down a game-high 12. He also recorded a season-best four blocks.

Lynchburg (4-2, 2-1) entered Wednesday's game averaging 85.8 points per game, but struggled to score early against a strong defensive effort by Virginia Wesleyan (7-0, 2-0). The Marlins' pressure helped force some hurried Lynchburg shots that led to Marlin rebounds and scores at the other end of the court.  Lynchburg hit only two of its first 19 field goal attempts and VWC built a 34-8 with 9:32 remaining in the first half.  The Marlins led 55-24 at halftime.

Virginia Wesleyan head coach Dave Macedo, who notched his 297th career victory, pulled most of his starters, including preseason All-AmericanD.J. Woodmore (Virginia Beach/Landstown), after five minutes elapsed in the second half.  Woodmore scored 22 first half points, just two shy of the entire Lynchburg team, and finished with a game-high 24.  Macedo utilized his deep bench in the last 15 minutes, substituting freely the remainder of the game. Nineteen Marlins recorded minutes and 15 scored.

Woodmore rolled up the points early by knocking down triples, hitting 5-of-8 long-range attempts in the first half.  He connected on 7-of-14 field goal attempts overall in just 20 minutes on the court.

Junior Greg Montgomery (Norfolk/Virginia Beach Princess Anne) hit 4-of-8 field goal attempts en route to scoring a season-high 12 points for the Marlins, and rookie Khory Moore(Arlington/Wakefield) matched his season-high by scoring 10 points.  Montgomery also pulled down eight rebounds and senior Colby Heard(Virginia Beach/Tallwood) and rookie Kendric Washington(Suffolk/Nansemond River) added six rebounds each.

Moore hit a triple with 10:04 remaining to give VWC an 80-41 lead. Lynchburg whittled away at the spread and rode the scoring of Lyndon White (Stafford/North Stafford), Omar Kemp (Fredericksburg/Riverbend), and Chad Lipes (Covington/Covington), among others, to help create the final margin of victory for the Marlins.

Andrew Simons (Richmond/Meadowbrook) led Lynchburg with 12 points. The Hornets pulled down 46 rebounds, led by Alex Graves (Waynesboro/Waynesboro) with eight.

Virginia Wesleyan enters a break from competition as the Marlins concentrate on academics, exams, and the close of the first semester.  VWC returns to action on Sunday, Dec. 15, in the annual Hampton Roads showdown with cross-bay rival Christopher Newport University at 2 p.m.  That game will take place in the Jane P. Batten Student Center

--AMDG--