VIRGINIA BEACH, Va - The Virginia Wesleyan men's basketball team defeated the Cardinals from St. John's Fisher University 80-69 on Saturday afternoon to close out the TowneBank Tipoff Tournament as the champions. The Marlins improved to 3-0 on the season with the victory.
INSIDE THE SCORE
Score: Virginia Wesleyan 80 - St. John's Fisher 69
Records: Virginia Wesleyan 3-0 | St. John's Fisher 1-2
Location: TowneBank Arena | Virginia Beach, VA
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first four and a half minutes were back and forth, as the Cardinals held onto a slim advantage for much of the time before the Marlins went on a 10-0 run to make the score 15-8 with 12 minutes left in the half. The Cardinals scored twice as the Marlins continued adding to their lead making it 22-14 with nine minutes remaining. The Cardinals hit a couple of baskets to cut it to a 24-23 lead for the Marlins with 4:45 on the clock.
Jordan Crump hit a three-pointer that started an 11-2 Marlin run as the score sat at 36-25 with 2:36 left in the first half. Both teams added six points to their tally with VWU's coming from a pair of threes from
Omari DeVeaux and Crump to enter halftime with the score at 42-31.
The Marlins enjoyed nine minutes of a double-digit lead as they led 58-47 at 10:57 on the clock after both teams opened the second half with 16 points each. A pair of free throws from St. John's Fisher brought the Cardinals within nine points, 58-49. Virginia Wesleyan and St. John's Fisher traded a couple of baskets to keep the spread in single digits until a
Miles Wallace layup gave VWU a 10-point double-digit lead, 64-54 at 8:47. The Marlins held the double-digit lead until the two-minute mark when a pair of buckets by the Cardinals closed the gap to six points, 75-69 with just over a minute to play. The remaining five points in the game all came from free throws in the Marlins favor with DeVeaux scoring four and Crump one.
KEY STATS
- The Marlins were led by Omari DeVeaux with 21 points shooting 5-11 from the field and a perfect eight-for-eight from the line. DeVeaux was named the Tournament MVP at the conclusion of the game.
- First year Amrai Moorer added 13 points while senior Jordan Crump contributed 12 points of his own. Both Moorer and Crump collected five rebounds in the game.
- Amarion Wilson led the Marlins with six rebounds and added eight points.
UP NEXT
The Marlins return to the court on Monday evening when they head across town to take on Division I foe, Old Dominion University in the annual Cross Town Battle. The Marlins and Monarchs will tip off at 7 PM at Chartway Arena. For tickets to the game go
here.
