SALEM, VA--Roanoke College junior Mike Zurek (Palm Beach Gardens, FL/Suncoast) scored on a layup with just 1.2 seconds remaining in the game to give the men's basketball team a 55-53 come-from-behind victory over visiting Lynchburg College on Saturday afternoon. The Maroons, who sweep Lynchburg in the regular season series, improve to 13-8 overall on the season and 7-7 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The Hornets, who have now lost four consecutive games, fall to 9-12 overall and 6-8 in the ODAC. The comeback was Roanoke's second such of the season, that after coming back from 19 down at Guilford.

The Maroons trailed by as many as 16 points early in the second half, but outscored the Hornets 31-13 over the final 17:51 of the game. Slowly chipping away at the lead, the Maroons finally cut the deficit to single digits for good with 8:08 left in the game on a driving layup from sophomore Tee Jackson (Galax, VA/Carroll Co.). A Kevinn Hunter (Dale City, VA/Gar-Field) free throw cut the LC lead to one with 1:31 remaining.

After Hunter's free throws, the Hornets missed a jumper on other end and the Maroons collected the rebound. Jared Butler (Springfield, VA/West Springfield) was then fouled and made the first of the two shots to even the score at 53 with 28 secoonds remaining. After missing the second shot, Butler kept the ball alive and sophomore Bart Davis (Huntingdon, WV/Fork Union) grabbed an offensive rebound while on the ground with about 25 ticks left. The Maroons called a timeout to set up one final play.

The Maroons missed a long jumper with just 2.4 seconds left on the clock and Lynchburg's Pete Manos grabbed the rebound and called a timeout. The Hornets had a throw-in on their own baseline, under the basket, coming out of the timeout, but the inbounder took several steps sideways, resulting in a travelling call and giving the ball back to the Maroons.

Another timeout was called by Roanoke to set up a second 'final' play. With the Maroons looking to set several picks, the Hornet defenders lost track of Zurek, who caught the inbounds pass from Butler and converted an uncontested layup with just 1.2 seconds left in the game. The Hornets had a desperation shot at the buzzer fall short.

The Maroons opened the game unable to handle the ball. Roanoke committed seven turnovers in the first six minutes of the game and 10 in the opening 14 minutes. Those miscues allowed the Hornets to open up as much as a 12-point advantage in the first half, that lead coming with 11:06 to play on a Davis Sheaffer layup to make the score 18-6. Twice in the half the Maroons trimmed the lead to four, but Manos scored Lynchburg's final seven points of the half to give his team a 32-22 lead at the break.
Ryan Pehanick and Matt Sweeney opened the second half with back-to-back three-pointers and Manos delivered two free throws and the Hornets had their largest lead of the game, 16 points, 40-24.

Roanoke then began its comeback by going on a 12-5 run to cut the lead to nine, 45-36, with 12:46 to play. With 8:47 left to play, the Hornets had a 10-point edge, 50-40, but could score only three points the rest of the way. Hunter scored four of his 12 points in the game in the stretch of one minute to bring the Maroons to within one late in the contest.

The Maroons got a team-high 14 points from Butler, who hit all three of his three-pointers in the second half. Jackson finished the day with 12 points, including three on an old-fashioned three-point play that brought RC to within eight points midway through the second half. Josh LaPorte grabbed 12 rebounds to lead all players, grabbing double-digit boards for the third consecutive game. The Maroons also outrebounded the Hornets 40-26, with 18 of the 40 boards coming off the offensive glass. The Maroons grabbed 11 of those 18 offensive rebounds in the second half.

Manos finished the game with 18 points, leading all scorers. He hit several fade-away jumpers in the contest and made seven of his 13 attempts from the field. Matt Sweeney scored 12 points, while Andy Albright recorded five steals, three coming in the first half.

The Maroons are back in action on Monday as the Tigers of Hampden-Sydney College come to Salem for a 7:00pm contest.

Roanoke vs. Lynchburg Box Score