WAYNE, N.J. -- A tough place to play on the road, against an opponent bent on staging an upset did not stop Khory Moore from doing his thing for the Virginia Wesleyan College men's basketball team on Saturday.

Moore was on target from the start of the NCAA Division III second round game at William Paterson University, where he scored a career-high 41 points, the second highest total in VWC history, to help the ninth-ranked Marlins to a 77-74 victory. 

The win sends Virginia Wesleyan to the round of 16 for the fifth straight year and for the seventh time since winning the national championship in 2006.  VWC will square off against Pennsylvania's No. 10 Dickinson College at a date and site to be announced later.  Dickson advanced with a 74-72 win over No. 7 Albertus Magnus College.

Moore (Arlington/Wakefield), only the fifth player in VWC history to score 40 or more points in a game, connected on 9-of-17 field goal attempts, including four triples, but hurt the host Pioneers (21-8) by driving in close for shots that drew fouls.  He took advantage of the situation by hitting 19-of-23 free throws, one shy of the program record of 20 set by Pete Withers against Greensboro College in 1973.

Moore's overall point total fell just two points shy of the VWC record of 43 set by Tom Brett against Wallops Island-UVA during the 1968-69 season.  Moore's 41 is also the highest scoring effort for a Marlin since 1993 when Walt Lassiter scored 38 points against Emory & Henry College.

Virginia Wesleyan, which led throughout most of the game, took a 43-31 lead into halftime and owned a 14-point lead in the second half.  But, William Paterson, the runner-up in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, did not let the Marlins pull away. Sandy Burgos (Ft. Lee, N.J./Ft. Lee), Terik Bridgeman (Harlem, N.Y./Nia Prep), and Zach Frick (Sparta, N.J./Sparta) emerged with key scoring to help the Pioneers tie the game at 53 and again at 60.

But, each time the Pioneers rallied, the Marlins had the answering scores. Cam Owens (Centreville/Centreville)hit a jumper to break the 53-all tie and Moore hit a timely triple with 6:47 remaining to break the tie at 60.  Moore scored 10 points in the final 7:16 to help maintain a lead for VWC, which also received five timely points from senior Breven Lyons (Newport News/Warwick), two from sophomore Tim Jones (Richmond/Henrico), and a free throw from Owens.

Virginia Wesleyan finished the contest with a decisive 41-24 rebounding advantage, led by sophomore Kaelin Poe (Greensboro, N.C./Hampton Kecoughtan, Va.) with a game-high 10. He also produced a game-high three blocks.  Owens tallied eight points for the Marlins and sophomore Andre Banks (Chesapeake/Great Bridge) came through with six.

Burgos led William Paterson with 19 points, Jaques Conceicao (Massama-Lisboa, Portugal/Francais Charle Lepierre) added 14, and Manny Hernandez (Paterson, N.J./Paramus Catholic) tallied 13.  Turrell McClendon (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway Tech) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

--AMDG--