The Virginia Wesleyan men's basketball team (10-5, 5-1 ODAC) took the victory at home over No. 5 Randolph-Macon (14-2, 6-2 ODAC) on January 21st, 65-64.
Omari Deveaux led the Marlins by scoring 18 points, 7-for-15 from the field, 1-for-2 from the free throw line, and had four rebounds.
Amari Moorer scored 13 points, 5-for-8 from the field, 3-for-7 from the free throw line, and grabbed five rebounds.
Demeir Pollard and
Khai Seargeant both added nine points to the board.
A defensive battle to start the game as the first basket was scored at the 18:02 mark in the game by the Yellow Jackets. The Marlins responded with a back-to-back threes to hold a 6-2 lead with 16:06 left in the game. Randolph-Macon responded with a 6-0 run to take an 8-6 lead at the 13:50 mark in the first half.
Khai Seargeant hit three to stop the RMC run, and
Miles Hancock made a free throw to put VWU up 10-8.
Over the next five minutes, Randolph-Macon went on a 13-4 run to hold a 21-14 lead over Virginia Wesleyan with 7:55 left in the first half. The Marlins responded with a 9-4 run to bring the score to 25-23, but the Yellow Jackets responded with a 6-2 run to go into halftime up 31-25.
Going into the second half, the Marlins came out firing, going on a 14-6 run in the first five minutes to take a 39-37 lead with 15:03 left in the half. The Yellow Jackets responded with a 9-5 run to take a 46-44 lead over VWU, but the Marlins responded with a 6-0 run to hold a 50-46 lead at the 10:54 mark of the half. Over the next two minutes, the Yellow Jackets went on a 6-0 run to retake the lead to 52-50, but VWU countered with a 6-2 run to hold a 56-54 lead with 5:53 left in the game.
Over the next five minutes in the game, RMC strung together a good run of play and outscored VWU 8-3 to hold a 62-59 lead with 48 seconds left in the half.
Omari DeVeaux hit a clutch three-pointer to tie the game at 62-62 wth 32 seconds left. The Marlins fouled the Yellow Jacket, who made both free throws to give them a 64-62 lead with seven seconds left in the half. With no timeouts, the Marlins offense got it to DeVeaux, who hit a three-pointer in the final second of the game to seal the 65-64 win over conference rival Randolph-Macon.
