VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - What Virginia Wesleyan College's Marlins started late in the first half Sunday continued throughout the second half and made it a long afternoon for the visiting Maroons of Roanoke College. The Marlins outscored Roanoke 11-2 in the final 4:08 of the first half and tacked on an 11-3 in the first 5:30 of the second half to establish a 19-point lead that carried Virginia Wesleyan to an impressive 72-50 Old Dominion Athletic Conference victory at the Jane P. Batten Student Center.
Jared Butler, Josh LaPorte and Keith Carter sparked a brief Roanoke run that cut the deficit to 11 with 7:18 to play, but Virginia Wesleyan answered with a 12-0 surge keyed by triples from sophomore TonTon Balenga (Newport News, Va./Warwick) and senior Marques Fitch (Virginia Beach, Va./Floyd E. Kellam).
That run gave the Marlins their largest lead of the game at 72-49 with 2:38 to play, virtually icing the victory that improved Virginia Wesleyan's overall record to 16-3 and its league-leading mark to 11-1. The win also extended a school-record winning streak to 14 consecutive games, tying Wisconsin's Lawrence University for the longest current streak in the nation.
"It was a good weekend for us," said VWC head coach David Macedo. "I'm proud of the guys. We haven't played with the same intensity level that we did against Randolph-Macon and Hampden-Sydney, but the guys have done what they've needed to do to keep on winning. I'm really pleased with our defensive effort recently. This is the third straight game now that we've held our opponent under 60 points."
In fact, the 50 points surrendered to Roanoke (10-7, 4-6) marks the second time the Marlins have put the clamps on the Maroons this season. Coupled with VWC's 58-41 win earlier this season at Roanoke, the Marlins have recorded the lowest two totals allowed to Roanoke in a 48-game series between the schools that began in 1979.
Roanoke shot 44% against the Marlins in the first half, but found it a little tougher against a stepped-up VWC defense in the second half and connected on only 30% in the final 20 minutes of play. Butler and AJ Dowell were the only Maroons to hit double-figure scoring, as Butler tallied 13 points and Dowell 11.
Virginia Wesleyan finished with three in double figures, led by Balenga with 16 points. Junior Brandon Adair (Virginia Beach, Va./Princess Anne) and Fitch tallied 15 points each. While Adair took care of business as usual in close, Fitch and Adair led a perimeter attack that netted nine triples. Fitch had three of those and Balenga and junior Rodney Young (Chesapeake, Va./Norfolk Norview) knocked down two each.
The Marlins also enjoyed a near-perfect night at the stripes, converting on 11-of-12 free throw attempts, as Balenga led that effort by hitting 6-of-6. Roanoke hit 6-of-11 free throws. Virginia Wesleyan also won the battle on the boards, 37-32, led by sophomore Tyler Fantin (Virginia Beach, Va./Floyd E. Kellam) with eight and Adair with seven. LaPorte led Roanoke's board game with five rebounds.
Roanoke bolted out to a 7-2 lead to open the game, but it did not take long for Virginia Wesleyan to start cranking. Balenga tallied four points in an 11-0 VWC run that gave the Marlins a 13-7 spread. Chris Peery and Dowell guided Roanoke back on a 10-4 surge that knotted the game at 17-all, the second and last tie score of the game.
Adair hit back-to-back jumpers to give the lead to VWC, which stayed a step ahead of the Maroons over the next five minutes. Peery, Butler and Dan Edsall all hit timely scores that helped to pull Roanoke within a 30-28 score with 4:08 to play, before Virginia Wesleyan took control for good.
A triple from sophomore D'Juan Tucker (Dumfries, Va./Forest Park) started the half-ending 11-2 run for the Marlins, who also got triples from rookie Terrell Dixon (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) and Balenga in that ending stretch that gave Virginia Wesleyan a 41-30 halftime lead.
A Fitch triple and back-to-back three-pointers from Young, all in the first five minutes of the second half, helped the Marlins open up a 52-33 lead. VWC still led 60-41 with 9:57 to play when the Maroons' reeled off eight unanswered points to pull within a 60-49 score. That was as close as it would get as Balenga hit a triple to start the 12-0 run that iced the win for the Marlins.
