SALEM, VA--The Roanoke College men's basketball team shot 73 percent from the field in the first half, spotting themselves a 13-point halftime lead, and went on to defeat visiting Guilford College, 92-78, in Old Dominion Athletic Conference action on Wednesday evening. The Maroons improve to 6-6 overall on the season and 3-2 in the ODAC, while the Quakers, who have now lost three straight contests, fall to 4-8 overall, 1-5 in league play. The Maroons have won two straight over the Quakers and 22 of the past 23 against their foes from North Carolina.

Everything was falling for the Maroons in the first half. As a team, the Maroons made 19 of their 26 field goal attempts, including four of their seven three-point tries. The Maroons scored the first two points of the ball game on a layup by John Rutledge (Abingdon, VA/Abingdon). The Quakers tied the score at four less than three minutes in, but the Maroons went on a 20-5 run over the next six minutes to take a 24-9 lead. In that run, four different Maroons hit three-pointers, including two from Drew Crowder (Radford, VA/Radford). The Maroons pushed their first-half lead out to as many as 19 points, at 32-13. Guilford cut the lead down to 11 with less than three minutes to play, but Joe Milton (Shawsville, VA/Shawsville) hit a bucket with 1:27 to go to give RC a 45-32 halftime lead. Of Roanoke's 45 first half points, only 16 came in the paint.

The Maroons opened the second half by missing their first four shots, letting the Quakers get to within nine points, 45-36. Kevinn Hunter (Dale City, VA/Gar-Field) hit back-to-back layups and the Maroons again had a double-digit lead. The Quakers twice got within eight points, the second time coming with 10:10 to play in regulation and the score at 64-56. From there, however, the Maroons went on a 16-2 run to take a 22-point lead. Bryan Fasnacht (Salem, VA/Glenvar) hit two three-pointers in the stretch to spark the RC offense.

The Maroons made 50 percent of their shots in the second half and finished the contest making 38 of their 64 tries for a 59.4 field goal shooting percentage. The team's defense let the Quakers make 47 percent of their attempts. Roanoke outrebounded the Quakers, getting 17 of their 36 boards off the offensive glass.

Crowder finished the game with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, including 2-for-2 from three point range. Also coming off of the bench Fasnacht finished with nine points for the Maroons, all nine coming from behind the three-point line. Hunter finished with 10 points, five rebounds, and three steals. Josh Foster (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Valley Christian) also hit double-figures with 12 points. He also led the team with six assists.

Brandon Clifford, who the Quakers picked up at the semester break from Division I UNC Wilmington, led Guilford with 17 points, 13 of which came in the first half. Jevon Clarke tallied 16 for the Quakers. All but one of the Guilford players that saw minutes in the contest recorded a point on the scoreboard.

The Maroons travel to Hamden-Sydney College on Saturday for a 2:00pm showdown with the Tigers, the nation's fourth ranked team in Division III. The Tigers will enter the contest with an undefeated record after beating third-ranked Randolph-Macon on Wednesday night.

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