SALEM, Va.- The Randolph men's basketball team opened the 2019 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon. The #9 seed WildCats took on #1 seed Randolph-Macon and the Yellow Jackets with coming out on top with a 79-42 win to advance the semifinals.

"Today was going to be tough and we knew it was going to be tough," said head coach Pete Hamilton afterwards. "This week has been meaningful to our program and it will be more meaningful to the seniors if we are able to continue to build on it."

The game was scoreless for the first 1:30 of the first half as the team's traded missed shots. Darryl Williams scored the first points on a layup to give RMC a 2-0 lead. The WildCats matched the Jackets first two baskets to tie the game at 4-4 with 16:18 remaining. RMC then used a 13-2 run to increase its lead to 17-6 at 12:09.

The WildCats were able to cut their deficit to 14 points, 28-14, after a Tremaine Pugh (Charlotte Court House, Va./Randolph Henry) jumper with 4:23 left until the break. The Yellow Jackets went on a 10-4 run and hit three as time expired to go into the locker room up 38-18. RMC's lead in the second half was never less than 24 points as the 'Cats could not cut into the Yellow Jacket advantage.

CJ Loving (Madison Heights, Va./Amherst County) led the WildCats with 10 points and brought down three rebounds. Jerry Goodman (Suffolk, Va./Portsmouth Christian School) added eight points. Nick Goble (Charlotte, N.C./Myers Park) and Elijah Ford (Chantilly, Va./Chantilly) both grabbed seven rebounds. Ford's two blocks gives him 37 for the season to establish a new Randolph season record.

The WildCats conclude the 2018-19 campaign with a final record of 12-15.

"We weren't perfect this year but I definitely feel like we did some pretty special things together," noted Hamilton. That's what we talked with the seniors about was to take a second and realize some of the special things we did."