SALEM, Va. -- Virginia Wesleyan College's men's basketball team will compete for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) championship for the eighth time in 11 years.

The Marlins earned their berth in Sunday's 3:30 p.m. title game at the Salem Civic Center by eliminating Washington and Lee University's Generals, 74-60 in a semifinal game on Saturday.  Virginia Wesleyan (21-6), the No. 2 seeded team, will face Hampden-Sydney (16-12), the No. 8 seed, for the title and the automatic berth in the upcoming NCAA Division III championship tournament.

ODAC Player of the Year D.J. Woodmore (Virginia Beach/Landstown) and Colby Heard (Virginia Beach/Tallwood) led the Marlins by scoring 23 points each.  Woodmore connected on an assortment of shots, hitting 8-of-16 attempts, and Heard dominated inside, knocking down 10-of-13 shots. Heard led VWC on the backboards as well, pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds to record his second consecutive double-double in the tournament.

Washington and Lee (8-20), the No. 11 seed which upset No. 6 Randolph College and No. 3 Guilford College to get to the semifinal game, played close to the Marlins throughout much of the first half.  Andy Kleinlein (Chesterfield, Mo./Chaminade) hit a pair of free throws to give the Generals a 25-24 lead with 4:58 remaining in the first half, but that's where Virginia Wesleyan started to take over for good.

Virginia Wesleyan's balanced offensive attack outscored the Generals 11-3 in the final 4:31 to open up a 35-27 lead at halftime.  Five Marlins scored in that run, led by Heard with three points and a rousing dunk by senior Trent Batson (Lewes, Del./Cape Henlopen).

The Marlins continued to pull away in the first two minutes of the second half, outscoring Washington and Lee 10-2 to open up a 45-30 lead.  Khory Moore (Arlington/Wakefield), the ODAC Rookie of the Year, hit two of the Marlins' first three shots, and sophomore Sedric Nady (Virginia Beach/Landstown) and Woodmore nailed a triple each.

Virginia Wesleyan pushed out to a 16-point lead at 52-36 after Woodmore drilled through three-pointer with 16:26 on the clock, but Washington and Lee produced timely scoring to keep the Marlins from rolling away.  Six-foot-8 Drew Kimberly (Fairfield, Conn./Ludlowe), Kevin Gill (Richmond/Benedictine), and Andrew Franz (Charlotte, N.C./Ravenscroft) all came through with points for the Generals, who pulled within eight points with12:36 remaining to be played.

It never got closer however, as the Marlins continued to pad their lead through the next eight minutes to lead 68-54 on a Woodmore triple with only 4:38 on the clock.  Heard led the effort in that eight-minute span, adding eight more points to his scoring total.

The Generals never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

In addition to the 23-point scoring efforts by Woodmore and Heard, the Marlins received 10 points from Moore and eight from Batson.  

Kimberly led Washington and Lee with 19 points, Franz finished with 17, and Gill tallied 16. Kimberly pulled down a team-high seven rebounds for the Generals.

--AMDG--