LEXINGTON, VA--The Roanoke College men's basketball team won its first contest since December 30th, a span of 11 days and four games, beating host Washington & Lee 65-53 on Saturday evening in Lexington, VA. The Maroons, who have won 17 straight games over the Generals, improve to 5-6 on the season and 2-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The Generals, whose last win over Roanoke came during the 1994-95 season, fall to 3-5, 0-4.
Leading by eight points at halftime, 30-22, the Maroons were outscored 16-6 in the first eight minutes of the second half and on the second of two free throws by W&L's Scott Hetterman fell behind 38-36. Hetterman's second free throw capped off a 8-0 run for the Generals during that 16-6 overall run. The two squads battled back and forth on the scoreboard over the next four minutes. The Generals took a 45-44 lead with 8:43 to play, but the Maroons took control, scoring the next seven points to take the lead for good (51-45). RC's Drew Crowder (Radford, VA/Radford) scored five of those seven points. After the Generals hit a layup to make the score 51-47 in RC's favor with 6:23 to play, the Maroons made three consecutive three-pointers, one by Josh Foster (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Valley Christian) and two by Nate Stewart (Christiansburg, VA/Auburn) and the Maroons had an 11-point lead. That lead would get as high as 14 just seconds later. In all, the Maroons closed the game on a 21-8 run over the final 7:51.
Washington & Lee's Mike Stuart drained one of his two three-pointers in the game 3:10 into the contest to give the hosts a 5-4 lead, but the Generals would then get just two points over the next seven minutes. In that time, the Maroons put 18 points into the scorebook and with 9:40 to play owned a 22-7 lead. Jason Graffam (Vienna, VA/Marshall) got things going at the top of that run with a three-pointer to give Roanoke a 7-5 lead. The Generals scored five of the final seven points of the first half and went into the break down 30-22.
For the second straight game, Foster led his team in scoring, dropping in a game-high 14 points. He also added four assists, two steals, and a blocked shot. Stewart, Crowder, and Robby Pridgen (Akron, OH/St. Vincent-St. Mary) all added 10 for the Maroons. Just a game after going 13-of-23 from the free throw line, the Maroons righted their ways, hitting all 10 of their attempts. The team also turned the ball over a season-low eight times.
The Maroons take three days off before returning to action on Wednesday as they host the Quakers of Guilford College in the school's C. Homer Bast Center. The Maroons and Quakers will get their contest underway at 7:00pm.
