LEXINGTON, Va. -- Virginia Wesleyan College's basketball Marlins rode a chartered bus to the campus of Washington & Lee University and then rode a Ford to a big road win.

Sophomore guard Tre' Ford, who is generally the man who distributes the basketball to other VWC players for scores, took over a scoring role Saturday and pumped in a career-high 22 points to help lead the No. 7 Marlins to an 89-78 Old Dominion Athletic Conference victory at the Warner Center.

Ford (Falls Church, Va./J.E.B. Stuart) (right) connected on 6-of-10 field goal attempts, including a game-high 4-of-6 from three point range, to lead all scoring.  He hit 6-of-6 free throws and tied a season-high with five steals.  Ironically, Ford, who ranks second in the ODAC in assists, had only one against the Generals.

Nevertheless, his effort highlighted another show of depth by the Marlins (18-1, 9-1), who used double-figure scoring from rookie DJ Woodmore (Virginia Beach/Landstown), sophomore Chris Teasley (Newport News, Va./Menchville) and juniorDonald Vaughn (Woodbridge, Va./Dumfries Potomac), and a career-high scoring effort by junior Rakeem Davis (Chesapeake, Va./Deep Creek), to post VWC's 20th consecutive victory in the series with Washington & Lee.

The victory also gave Virginia Wesleyan the lead for now in the ODAC, as Randolph-Macon College dropped a 62-61 decision at Guilford College.  VWC now currently tops the ODAC with a 9-1 league mark, while R-MC is 10-2, followed by Randolph College at 7-3.

Washington & Lee (12-6, 5-5), which dropped its fourth decision in its last six outings, led 21-20 on a Kevin Gill (Richmond, Va./Benedictine) layup with 8:14 remaining in the first half, but not for long.  After Vaughn hit a jumper, Ford came through to block another scoring attempt by Gill.  Vaughn snared the rebound and Woodmore finished it off with a dunk.

Ford came right back to steal the ball on th Generals' ensuing possession and sophomore Chris Astorga (Suffolk, Va./Virginia Beach Cape Henry) scored on a layup to give VWC a 26-21 advantage and a lead the Marlins held to the final buzzer.

Two free throws by Davis gave the Marlins their largest lead of the first half at 37-27, before John Rice (Fayetteville, N.C./Terry Sanford), Larry Whitaker (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) and J.D. Ey (Charlotte, N.C./Myers Park) came through with scoring to help W&L pull within two points with 1:34 on the clock.  Teasley capped scoring to give Virginia Wesleyan a 40-35 advantage at the break.

Virginia Wesleyan led anywhere from one to six points through the first 14 minutes of the second half, helped by timely triples from Woodmore and Ford.  Jeremy Adkins (Huntington, W.Va./Spring Valley) and Gill helped pull the Generals back within three with 7:09 remaining, but VWC answered with a a decisive 9-2 spurt, keyed by big triples from Teasley and Ford.  The Marlins led 74-64 on Ford's four triple with 4:51 remaining to be played.

An Adkins three pulled W&L within a 78-74 score, but Woodmore knocked down a three on the Marlins' next possession.  Free throws enabled the Generals to creep within five down the stretch, but no closer.

Woodmore finished with 18 points for the Marlins, hitting 7-of-14 field goal attempts.  Vaughn tallied 13 points, nailing 7-of-10 free throws, and Teasley tallied 12 points.  Davis finished with eight points.

Virginia Wesleyan put up 16 triples and connected on nine, while W&L hit 4-of-8.  Both teams fared well from the charity stripes ad W&L hit 20-of-25, and VWC hit 26-of-32.  Washington & Lee won the rebounding battle 37-31, led by Ey with 10.  Vaughn led VWC with nine. 

Virginia Wesleyan turned the ball over only eight times in the game.  W&L lost possession 16 times.

Virginia Wesleyan returns to competition on Saturday, Feb. 5, hosting the Maroons of Roanoke College in ODAC action at 2 p.m. at the Jane P. Batten Student Center.

--AMDG--