The Virginia Wesleyan University men's basketball team (14-6, 9-2 ODAC) was defeated by Averett 61-56.
The Marlins were led by
Amari Moorer who had 14 points, shot 6-for-11 from the field, grabbed 10 rebounds, and had one steal.
Omari DeVeaux had 12 points, shooting 5-for-12 from the field, had three rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
Malcolm Velmar had nine points, shot 4-for-10 from the field, and six rebounds, and teammate
Paul Anderson also had nine points, shooting 2-for-9 from the field, 4-for-4 from the free throw line, with 10 rebounds, one assist, and one steal.
The Marlins scored the first bucket of the game on Jan. 10 to take a lead and went on to lead 5-3 early in the game. However, the Cougars came back and tied the game at 5-5. Over the next five minutes, the two teams traded points and found themselves tied at 13-13 at the 12:14 mark in the first half.
The two teams were deadlocked until VWU went on a 9-4 run to take a 26-21 lead with 4:03 left in the first half. Averett chipped away at the Marlins' lead the rest of the half and cut it to 30-28 at halftime.
After a close first half that saw the Marlins up 30-28, the host Cougars went on a 7-0 run to take a 37-32 lead at the 16:23 mark in the second half. Averett continued their good run of play, outscoring VWU 6-2 to take a 43-34 lead with 15:23 in the game. Virginia Wesleyan responded with a 9-2 run over the next five minutes to cut the lead to 45-43 at the 10:53 mark. Over the next couple of minutes, only one bucket was scored. However, after several players had slipped at both ends of the floor, the officiating crew gathered and made the call to suspend the contest.
The Marlins came back on February sixth with nine minutes to play, down 47-43. Averett came out strong, jumping out with a 7-0 run to take a 54-43 lead at the 7:40 mark in the game. Virginia Wesleyan rallied back with a 10-0 run to bring the score to 54-53 with 2:11 left in the game. The Cougars stopped the bleeding with a clutch three to increase their lead to 57-53 at the 1:30 mark. Moorer made one free throw on the next possession, but then Averett came down on offense and scored a layup with 31 seconds left. The Marlins missed three's on their next two possessions before getting a layup with seven seconds on the clock to bring the score to 59-56. With little time on the clock, the Marlins were forced to foul with five seconds left, but AU hit two clutch free throws to seal the win for the Cougars.
