SALEM, VA--The Roanoke College men's basketball team had its seven-game winning streak snapped with a 65-62 home loss to Hampden-Sydney College on Sunday afternoon in Salem, VA. The Maroons fall to 8-8 overall and 4-5 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference while the Tigers move to 11-5, 6-3. Roanoke, which has now lost three straight to the Tigers, had not lost a game since December 28th.
The Maroons shot just 36.4 percent from the field in the contest, including a 4-for-26 performance from three-point range. Roanoke missed its first 17 shot from three-point range, including all 12 of their attempts in the first half. Curtis Peery opened the game's scoring and AJ Dowell hit a floater in the lane to give the Maroons a 4-2 lead with just two minutes gone in the game, Roanoke's only two leads of the contest.
Roanoke trailed just 24-21 with 4:59 left in the first half, but the Tigers ended the frame on a 10-0 run to take a 34-21 lead at halftime. Mike Edwards, who scored a game-high 24 points, hit a deep three-pointer to beat the shot clock, made a free throw, and hit a driving layup for the Tigers in that run.
Hampden-Sydney's lead stayed in double-figures for the first 10 minutes of the second half, but got no larger that 13. With 7:21 left in the game, Roanoke's AJ Dowell made two free throws to make the score 53-43. After a Hampden-Sydney miss, Roanoke junior Keith Carter hit a three-pointer from the corner and the HSC lead was just seven.
Another Tiger miss and a Curtis Peery offensive rebound and pass to Zach Milton made the score 53-48 with 5:46 to play. A shot clock violation by the Tigers allowed the Maroons to close to within three on two Carter free throws. Edwards responded with two foul shots, but Carter hit a three from the wing and a Josh LaPorte's layup of a Peery pass evened the score at 55 with 3:37 left.
Roanoke then missed its next four shots from the field and in the process HSC freshman Turner King hit a reverse layup and Edwards made three straight foul shots and the Tigers had a 60-55 lead. With the Tigers scoring their final eight points from the line, the Maroons were unable to even the score.
Edwards was one of just five Hampden-Sydney players to score. Freshman Lane Medlin scored 14 points, while King finished with 13 points and Tyler Murray 10. The only other Tigers to score, Matt Kittrell had four.
Carter had 15 for Roanoke, while LaPorte had 13 and Dowell 10. The Roanoke starting lineup finished the game a combined 16-for-44 (36.3%) from the field, 1-for-14 (7.1%) from three-point range.
Roanoke looks to get back in the win column on Wednesday when the Eagles of Bridgewater College come to Salem. The ODAC contest begins at 7:00pm.
