Hot First Half Races Marlins past Royals
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Virginia Wesleyan College men's basketball team jumped out to a 25-4 first-half lead Wednesday night, defeating Eastern Mennonite 95-68 in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play.
Eastern Mennonite jumped out to a fast 10-0 start in Harrisonburg several weeks ago, and the Marlins answered tonight, going up 13-0 before EMU scored its first basket.
Khory Moore started the scoring with a 3-pointer on the Marlins second possession before made baskets by Kaelin Poe and Tim Jones made the score 7-0. Moore added another three at the 17:14 mark to make the score 10-0. He poured in another trey the next time up the floor to make it 13-0 and force the Royals to take a timeout.
Moore had a huge first half for the Marlins, posting 20 points on 7-7 shooting, making six 3-pointers, in eight minutes of action.
Following an EMU basket, Andre Banks scored a layup for a 15-2 edge. Poe swiped the ball from Josh Good the next trip up the court. Poe found Moore on the fast break who drove the lane, skied over Good, and threw a thunderous dunk down over the larger defender.
The Marlins used that momentum to continue to pull away, getting a layup from Corey White, Jr. and threes from Keijon Honore and Moore to go up 25-4 with 11:53 to play in the first.
Virginia Wesleyan continued to pull away, scoring 49 points in the first half on 18-39 (46.2%) shooting. The Marlins were 10-19 (52.6%) from 3-point range and committed just six turnovers while forcing the Royals into 10 in the opening frame.
RaShawn Latimer led Eastern Mennonite (9-11/4-7) with 19 points.
Moore finished with 25 points for the Marlins while Jones posted a balanced line of six points, four rebounds, and eight assists. Justin Watson returned to form with 12 points, two assists, and three steals off the bench.
Virginia Wesleyan (14-6/7-4) hosts Roanoke College (11-8/6-5) Saturday for a 4:30 p.m. ODAC start.
Notes
The Marlins have won five straight games following two-game losing streaks twice this year… Moore has scored at least 20 points in each of his last six games… Moore has 1,858 career points, 99 away from D.J. Woodmore '14 for second place all-time… He needs to average 19.8 points over the final five games of the regular season to pass him… The Marlins are 50-22 against EMU… This is the first time the Marlins have swept the season series since going 3-0 in 2012-13.