SALEM, VA- The Roanoke College men's basketball team defeated the Bridgewater College Eagles 64-59 on Wednesday evening in Salem, VA in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play. The Maroons, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped on Sunday, improve to 9-8 overall on the year and 5-5 in the ODAC. The Eagles, who have lost 10 consecutive games, are now 4-12 overall and 1-8 in the league.
The host Maroons struggled from the field early, making just three of their first 12 shots, and in the process fell behind by as many as five points, 16-11. Roanoke, which also had six of its 15 turnovers during that same stretch, finally came alive with 6:16 left in the first half, sparked by a
Tee Jackson steal and layup to make the score 16-13. That shot started a 14-2 Roanoke run that ended with the hosts leading 25-18 with 3:26 left in the first half. Jackson tied the score at 16 with a three and
AJ Dowell followed with a three of his own to gave the Maroons the lead for good.
After Roanoke junior
Jeff Leiter hit a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, to give the Maroons a 29-20 lead at the break, Roanoke quickly pushed its lead to double-digits early in the second half on a
Ben Shrader layup. Roanoke's lead would get as high as 15 points and would stay in double-digits for the first 15 minutes of the second half.
Trailing by 14 points with 5:56 left in the game, the Eagles used an 11-0 run to trim Roanoke's lead to just three points, 56-53, with 2:10 to play. Kris Cecil hit one of two BC threes in the run to get Roanoke's lead to 11. After three straight foul shots, BC's Dominic Trawick hit a fade-away jumper and Robert Rice hit the second three and the lead was down to three.
Dowell brought an end to the Bridgewater run, tapping in the rebound of a
Curtis Peery miss to push the lead back to five. That was followed by a
Zach Milton layup and Roanoke's lead was seven. The Eagles made two threes in the final 46 seconds, but the Maroons made four free throws in the final 22 seconds to ice the win.
Dowell scored 16 points and added three rebounds, three assists, and three steals, while Jackson came off the bench to score 10 points. Dowell and backcourt mate
Keith Carter helped keep the ODAC's fourth leading scorer, Trawick, to no points in the first half and just 12 for the game. Josh Fox led all Bridgewater scorers with 15.
The Maroons travel to Lexington, VA on Saturday to take on the Generals of Washington & Lee and then head to Emory, VA a week from Wednesday to play the Wasps of Emory & Henry College.
Roanoke vs. Bridgewater Box Score
