Lynchburg Reporter

Men’s Basketball Falls at Mary Baldwin 88-79

The Randolph men's basketball travels to Mary Baldwin on Tuesday to face the Fighting Squirrels. The WildCats had a lead at halftime but Mary Baldwin came back in the second half as it won 88-79.

The WildCats trailed early in the first half but with the game tied at 18-18 with 9:44 showing on the game clock, Randolph went on a 16-6 run to go ahead 34-24 with 2:47 remaining in the half. Still ahead by 10 points with 1:35 left, the Fighting Squirrels closed out the half on a 7-0 run as the Randolph lead was now three points, 36-33, at halftime.

In the second half, the WildCats were ahead 41-37 but Mary Baldwin wrestled the lead away and went ahead 47-43. The lead exchanged hands a few more times until with less than nine minutes remaining to play in the contest, the Fighting Squirrels broke away with a 15-2 run to go up 75-61 with 4:30 left in the game. The WildCats were able to close to within seven points with three seconds left but Mary Baldwin made a pair of free throws to secure the win.

Randolph was 29-of-69 (42%) from the floor while Mary Baldwin was 33-of-59 (55.9%). Rebounds favored the WildCats 44-33.

Thought we had a good plan and executed it a bit in the first half," said head coach Pete Hamilton. "We went inside and Myron and Joe helped us get going a little bit. Unfortunately, when you guard the ball as poorly as we did tonight it's hard to sustain any flow to the game. Mary Baldwin really attacked us off the bounce and we did a poor job responding to that." 

Danny Bickey (Beckley, W.V./Woodrow Wilson) led with 16 points. Myron Williams (Fayetteville, N.C./Cape Fear) also had 16 points. Jordan Phillips-McLoyd (Johnson City, Tenn./Science Hill) added 12 points. Jerry Goodman (Suffolk, Va./Portsmouth Christian School) chipped in nine points. Cole Perry (Salisbury, N.C./Jesse Carson) led in rebounds with 12 and also scored six points.

"Glad to see Cole with 12 rebounds," noted Hamilton. "We'd like to rebound consistently across the 4 and 5 position as I think they can be a major strength of ours moving forward this season."

The WildCats will travel to #1 Randolph-Macon to face the defending ODAC and National Champions on Sunday. Game time from Ashland will be at 2:00 p.m.

Original source can be found here