LYNCHBURG, Va.- The Randolph men's basketball team hosted Southern Virginia in non-conference action at Giles Gymnasium on Saturday. The WildCats trailed by 11 points in the first half but would recover to outscore the Knights 52-32 in the second half on the way to a 92-69 victory.
Randolph's overall record now stands at 4-5 while the Knights drop to 3-6.
With his first basket of the game at 19:14 of the first half, Danny Bickey (Beckley, W.V./Woodrow Wilson) went over 1,000 points for his career and became the seventh WildCat in the history of the program to do so. He finished the game with 30 points on 9-of-17 shooting and was 6-of-13 from behind the three-point arc. He added four steals and three assists. Currently, his 1,029 points are sixth on the career scoring list.
"Congrats to Bickey on scoring his 1,000th point tonight," said head coach Pete Hamilton. "What an accomplishment - and to do it in as little games as he has done it is extremely impressive. When our offense is intentional the way we were today his movement is hard to keep up with - I think our pace and our guys did a nice job of screening and finding him at the right times."
Southern Virginia led for most of the first half. Their lead was as much as 11 points, 28-17, with 8:17 remaining in the period. Randolph used an 11-3 run to make it a 31-28 game with 4:44 showing on the clock. The Knights inched ahead to go up by seven points, 35-28, with 3:05 left. Another Randolph run, this time 12-2, gave the WildCats a 40-37 lead at the break.
An 8-2 run to start the second half put Randolph ahead 48-39. SVU made it a one-possession contest, 54-52, at the 14:04 mark. A 17-5 WildCat run, gave Randolph a double-digit advantage, 71-57 with 9:31 remaining in the game. The Knights got as close as 10 points, 77-67, with under six minutes left but Randolph blew the game open with a 15-2 run to end the game as Southern Virgina went cold in the final 5:22 as it committed six turnovers and missed six shots from the field.
"The defensive effort and physicality was the biggest factor for us today," said Hamilton. " SVU has some really talented offensive players - we couldn't hold all of them down but I think our constant pressure and physical attack finally wore on them at the right time. We probably fouled a little too much but I loved the physical approach our guys showed up with today."
Randolph finished the game 33-of-70 (47.1%) overall and was good on 14-of-31 (45.2%) three-point shots which was its best performance of the season to date. The WildCats dominated in points off turnovers 29-7, points in the paint 30-20, and in fast break points 19-5.
"We turned it over six times for the game - one turnover in the second half," noted Hamilton. "Awesome to see our guys take some ownership of the basketball and get shots each time down. It takes so much pressure off each shot and each set when we can play with the confidence that we're getting more shots than the opponent."
Landon Wagoner (Martinsburg, Va./Carlisle School) scored a career-high 16 points as he was 5-of-9 from the field and made all four of his three-point baskets. Rayvon Graham (Lynchburg, Va./E.C. Glass) added 15 points and three steals. Evan Wiehe (Northfield, OH/Nordonia) put up eight points. Amari Gorham (Yorktown, Va./Yorktown) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds to go with six points.
"Rayvon Graham and Landon Wagoner made a huge difference for us offensively," noted Hamilton. "When we have some guys like that step into shots with confidence and attack the outside with certainty it opens stuff up for us like we saw. We've been talking to Rayvon for a few games about finding more shots and being more assertive with his off-ball movement - credit to him for playing within himself but still finding times to be aggressive tonight."
Randolph will head to the University of Lynchburg to participate in the Wayne Proffit Classic on Tuesday. The WildCats take on Marymount at 4:00 p.m.
