SALEM, VA—The Roanoke College men's basketball team picked up two important road victories over the weekend with victories over Randolph-Macon and Virginia Wesleyan. The Maroons defeated Randolph-Macon, 66-52, on Saturday and then returned to beat Virginia Wesleyan College, 73-66, on Sunday afternoon. With the two wins, the Maroons improve to 12-4 on the season and 7-2 in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play. Both wins also avenged losses to both teams suffered at home by Roanoke in early December.
On Saturday, the Maroons got 19 points out of sophomore guard Robby Pridgen (Akron, OH/St. Vincent-St. Mary) who was 6-of-10 from the field, including a 4-for-4 clip from three-point land. Colby Leftwich (Roanoke, VA/Patrick Henry) added 12 points and six rebounds for RC, while fellow senior Jason Strickland (Charlottesville, VA/Covenant) had a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Maroons shot just 34.6 percent (9-of-26) from the field in the first half, and as a result went into the half trailing the Yellow Jackets, 27-20. The Maroons also were hurt by 12 first half turnovers. The second half was a different story, as the Maroons came out of the locker rooms to shoot 57.1 percent (16-of-28) and commit just four turnovers. The Yellow Jackets held on to their lead until the 9:48 mark of the second half, when Leftwich converted a shot from the paint to give RC a 42-40 lead. The Maroons held the lead for the rest of the game and pushed the lead to 14 as time expired on a dunk from senior Brad Dunleavy (Roanoke, VA/William Fleming).
Following the Randolph-Macon win, the Maroons headed out to Virginia Beach, where their were scheduled to play Virginia Wesleyan on Sunday. The Maroons defeated the Marlins, 73-66, to pick up their first win at the Beach since 1996. The Maroons got a team-high 16 points from Leftwich, and also got 15 points from Dunleavy who played just 16 minutes after getting into early foul trouble. Pridgen added 10 points, including two clutch three-pointers late in the game, one that gave the Maroons a four-point lead with just 1:32 to go in the game.
As they had in the Macon contest, the Maroons went into the half trailing the Marlins, this time by the score of 33-28. The Marlins pushed the lead to as many as nine points 48-39, with 13:22 left in the second. Roanoke trimmed the lead down to one, 55-54, with 8:37 to go, only to see the lead balloon back to seven (61-54) just two minutes later. RC fought it way back into the game once again, and with a traditional three-point play from Leftwich took the lead at 63-62 with 2:56 to play. The lead was RC's first since the 10:17 mark of the first half. Over the final 6:18 of the game, the Maroons got the better of VWC in the scoring column, 19-5. One free throw by Leftwich and two by freshman Jason Graffam (Vienna, VA/Marshall) with under a minute to go iced the game for the Maroons.
Roanoke hits the highway again on Wednesday, as it travels to Harrisonburg, VA to play the Royals of Eastern Mennonite University. The Maroons then return home for a 7:00pm contest against Washington & Lee on Saturday.
