LYNCHBURG, Va.- The Randolph men's basketball team hosted its ODAC opener on Sunday afternoon as they faced Bridgewater at Giles Gymnasium. It was a tight game throughout as it came down to the waning seconds as the Eagles drained a three-point basket at the buzzer to win 68-67.
It was a defensive contest to start in the first half. Randolph took its largest lead, 18-12, with 5:45 remaining in the period. Bridgewater closed it to a one-possession game, 18-16, with 4:16 showing on the game clock. The WildCats restored their six-point advantage with layups by Cole Perry (Salisbury, N.C./Jesse Carson HS) and Amari Gorham (Yorktown, Va./Yorktown) with under two minutes left. BC made it a one-point game with 1:11 to go and the score stood at 22-21 in Randolph's favor at halftime.
In the second half, Bridgewater took the lead with a 6-0 run, 27-22. The WildCats went on a 9-0 run with back-to-back threes by Danny Bickey (Beckley, W.V./Woodrow Wilson) and Moustapha Diop (Fuquay Varina, N.C./Apex Friendship) to go ahead 31-27. The two teams then exchanged leads for several minutes of game time. The WildCats pushed ahead to a five-point advantage 52-47, with 9:06 showing on the clock. BC answered with a 7-0 run to go up 54-52 but Randolph used an 11-0 run to break away and take its biggest lead of the afternoon, 63-54 with 3:47 left in regulation.
Bridgewater rallied to cut the WildCat lead to 63-60 with 2:36 left. A Gorham layup edged the WildCats ahead 65-60 at 1:51. The Eagles tied the game up at 65-all with 19 seconds left. Randolph went down the court and a missed layup by Gorham was put back in by Perry to put the WildCats up 67-65 with two seconds remaining. The Eagles brought the ball down and had one last chance with just over one second remaining to play. Bridgewater's Jordan Cooper passed to the right side of the court to Will Vetter who sank the three-point basket with time expiring to send the Eagles home with the victory.
"It's tough because it's hard to see right now how we didn't deserve that one," said head coach Pete Hamilton." Our guys bought in to the defensive side of the ball and I thought really dictated things in that way. The way the last couple minutes played out is just tough to swallow right now. I'm so proud of the effort and the togetherness."
There were 17 lead changes and the game was tied 11 times. Overall, Randolph was 26-of-52 (50%) from the field and 5-of-15 (33.3%) from behind the three-point arc. The Eagles were just 21-of-65 (32.3%) overall and 6-of-22 (27.3%) in three-point attempts. Randolph had a slight 40-38 edge in rebounds.
"Our bench was phenomenal tonight," stated Hamilton. "Amari, Mous, Ryan Viruso and Clingerman checked in after a really slow start to our second half and gave us a huge jolt. I'm proud of those guys grit and acceptance of a role - they played their roles well tonight."
The WildCats led in the paint 36-24 and got 47 points from their bench compared to 12 for the Eagles.
Gorham led Randolph with 14 points as he made all six of his shots and two free throws. Diop added 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Bickey chipped in eight points. Perry had a team-high 12 rebounds to go with six points.
The WildCats make the short trip across town to the University of Lynchburg to face the Hornets on Wednesday. Game time will be at 5:00 p.m.
"Hopefully we can reorganize and refocus tomorrow for another ODAC game this week," stated Hamilton. "It will be a tough mental challenge for us as a group but I think we've got the guys to get it."
