SALEM, VA--The Roanoke College men's basketball team fell to 8-8 following a 74-66 loss to Randolph-Macon College, Division III's fourth ranked team in thee D3Hoops.com national poll. The Maroons also fall to 5-4 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The Yellow Jackets, who have won five straight over RC, improve to 16-1 overall and 9-1 in league play.
The Maroons hung tight with the Yellow Jackets throughout the first half and had as much as a three-point lead, 14-11, following a Drew Crowder (Radford, VA/Radford) layup with 11:10 to play. The Maroons would get just three more points in the next nine minutes and fell behind the hosts by as many as eight points. Robby Pridgen (Akron, OH/St. Vincent-St. Mary) scored a bucket with 22 seconds to play to make the score 27-24 in favor of the Yellow Jackets. After a defensive stop with less then 10 seconds to play, the Maroons committed one of their 10 first half turnovers allowing RMC senior Jamal Brunt to hit a layup with no time left giving the home team a 29-24 halftime lead.
The early portion of the second half saw scoring streaks from both teams, with the Maroons closing to within two and the Yellow Jackets extending their lead to as many as 10. A three-pointer by Kurt Bergmann gave the Yellow Jackets a 15-point lead, their largest of the game, with 6:27 to play. The Maroons, however, mounted an 11-2 scoring run to cut the RMC lead to just five with 3:51 to play. Josh Foster (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Valley Christian) scored seven of those points. Missed free throw opportunities down the stretch hurt the Maroons, allowing Randolph-Macon to push their lead back up to 10. The Yellow Jackets scored their final five points, and nine of their final 15 from the free throw line.
Foster finished the game with 20 points, while Pridgen added 14, although just four came in the second half. RMC's Bergmann scored a career-high 25 points and also tied a career-best with 12 rebounds, seven of which were off of teammates' misses. The Maroons held ODAC Player of the Year candidate Jared Mills to just 11 points, but guard Ryan Stein tallied 13.
The Maroons play at Virginia Wesleyan at 3:00pm on Sunday.
