LEXINGTON, Va.- The Randolph men's basketball team made a midweek visit to Washington and Lee to take on the Generals in an ODAC contest. The WildCats battled to take a second half lead on W&L but the Generals came back to win the game by the score of 82-77.

The WildCats found themselves down 8-2 early in the second half and as much as 10 points, 21-11, with 8:44 remaining in the half. Randolph eliminated its deficit by going on a 10-0 run and tie the game at 21-21 with 7:15 showing on the game clock. The WildCats led by as much as eight points, 34-26 with 2:41 left. The Generals came back to close to within two points, 36-34, at half-time.

The score changed hands twice within the first minute of the second half. The WildCats broke a 38-38 tie with an 8-0 run to lead 46-38. W&L closed to within one point of tying the game back up but the 'Cats went on a 9-0 run aided by three-point baskets by Landon Wagoner (Martinsville, Va./Carlisle School) and Evan Wiehe (Northfield, OH/Nordonia) to take its biggest lead of the night, 55-45, at 14:02.

A 23-6 run by Washington and Lee spanning just over five a half minutes of game gave the home team a 68-61 lead with 8:16 remaining in regulation. Randolph got to within five points, 70-65, with 6:48 left to play. An 8-2 run by the Generals brought their lead to 11 points, 78-67, with 1:14 showing on the clock. The WildCats were able to make it a two-possession contest with eight seconds remaining but there was not enough time left as W&L held off the Randolph comeback effort.

"Extremely proud of our group tonight," said head coach Pete Hamilton. "We've had a stretch of inconsistency and I really thought we overcame a lot of challenges tonight and gave ourselves a chance. We struggled on the glass in the second half and I think that really let them off the hook on a bunch of possessions when they started to gain more life."

Overall, Randolph was 30-of-71 (42.3%) from the floor and 13-of-32 (40.6%) from behind the three-point arc. The 13 three-pointers represented the second-highest total for the WildCats to date this season.  W&L went 29-of-63 (46%) overall and 7-of-31 (22.6%) from behind the three-point arc. The Generals dominated on the boards 50-30.

The WildCats did outscore the Generals 29-7 in points off turnovers and 42-10 in bench points.

Wiehe led Randolph with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and went 5-of-9 in three-point attempts. Wagoner added 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and made three three-point baskets. He grabbed six rebounds. Moustapha Diop (Fuquay Varina, N.C./Apex Friendship) also scored 15 points to go with four rebounds.

"Our first-year players did a great job stepping into some roles tonight," noted Hamilton. "Amari Gorham was a great presence for us defensively, Moustapha Diop battled his tail off on defense and made some timely aggressive moves to finish for us, and Nehemiah Frye gave us a big lift with some deep ones early to loosen up the defense a little bit. Senior Landon Wagoner played an excellent game. His defensive presence was phenomenal against one of the better scorers in our league and he was on balance and assertive offensively going 6-8 from the field."

Randolph returns home to host Shenandoah on Saturday. Game time will be at 2:00 p.m.