For immediate release – 2/3/2016 - #173
Defensive Effort not enough for Randolph
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – The Randolph College men's basketball team forced 14 turnovers and held Virginia Wesleyan College 26 points under its season average, but the hosts won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) game 50-42 on Wednesday night.
As a sign of the whole game, both sides' defenses played well and the offenses struggled to get on the board early on. Corey Brown was the first player to score, as he put back an offensive rebound with almost three minutes off the clock. Ryan Fields and Rhyle Scott answered layups by Kaelin Poe and Aaron Sturdifen to keep the Randolph lead at two.
However, the Marlins responded with two-straight from behind the arc, before Fields came back with another layup. Corey White pushed the VWC advantage back to three, and then Jason Eddie tied the game with a trey of this own with 11:10. The 'Cats then took the lead after a layup by Remele Hicks and a free throw by Zach Desgain.
But over the final five minutes, the Marlins went on a 16-1 run to end the half with a 28-15 lead.
Once again, each team failed to score in the early goings of the half. Scott stopped the deadlock with a jumper over two minutes in. Virginia Wesleyan responded with six of the next eight to push the advantage to 15 with 16:27 left. There was another two-minute scoreless span, before Reid Jacoby made a layup with 14:21.
Desgain then scored five of the next seven, including an and-one, to cut the deficit to 10. White hit a free throw, before Hicks and Desgain cut it further with four straight. However, another drought occurred on both sides, before it ended only for the hosts. VWC scored eight in a row to take a 45-30 lead with 7:25 remaining.
Desgain ended the drought at 5:51 with a layup, but Keijon Honore hit a three shortly after. Desgain scored again, before Poe tallied the last points for the Marlins with 2:56 remaining.
Nick Goble hit a layup off a pass from Desgain. Desgain followed it with a traditional three-point play and tallied a three from behind the arc in the waning moments, but the hosts hung on for the win.
Desgain scored a game-high 18 points. He added seven rebounds and two assists in the game. Scott pulled down eight rebounds off the bench. Poe notched a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds for Virginia Wesleyan (14-6 overall, 9-2 ODAC). Khory Moore also finished in double-figures with 12 points.
Randolph (10-10, 4-7) finishes its short road trip on Saturday. The WildCats will play at Bridgewater College (6-12, 5-5) in an important ODAC matchup. The 2 p.m. contest will go a long way to deciding seeds in the conference tournament.