WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.- The Randolph men's basketball team played its final non-conference game of the season as the WildCats faced Carolina University on Wednesday evening. The WildCats led at halftime but the Bruins used a strong second half effort to come out with an 80-66 win.

The WildCats had an early 17-7 lead in the first half. Carolina was able to cut the lead down to three points, 17-14, with 11:34 remaining in the period. Randolph brought its lead back up to 10 points, 26-16, with under nine minutes left on the clock. The Bruins whittled the lead down to two points, 31-29, with just over a minute left. Amari Gorham's (Yorktown, Va./Yorktown) tip in of a missed Dejsani Beamon (Elgin, IL./Burlington) layup put the WildCats out in front 33-29 at halftime.

In the second half, Randolph led 39-35 just over two minutes into half. A 13-0 run by Carolina staked the home team to a 48-39 lead under the 15-minute mark. The WildCats were able to make it a one-possession game, 48-46, at 12:36. Randolph kept pace with the Bruins and was able to get to within a point at 60-59 with 6:12 left in regulation. Carolina then went on a game-changing 14-2 run to go up 74-62 with 1:28 left that sparked the Bruins to the win.

"Thought we started with some intent and energy but had no response once they made a run back," said head coach Pete Hamilton. "Obviously disappointed to drop the last one headed into ODAC play. Our rebounding effort and offensive execution was below average and we paid for it."

Randolph shot 25-of-62 (40.3%) from the floor and 8-of-24 (33.3%) from behind the three-point arc. Carolina was 29-of-62 (46.8%) overall and 7-of-24 (29.2%) in three-point attempts. The Bruins led in rebounds 42-37.

Danny Bickey (Beckley, W.V./Woodrow Wilson) led the WildCats with 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Gorham finished with 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Evan Wiehe (Northfield, OH/Nordonia) added 10 points and five rebounds.

"Hopefully we can clean some things up before this weekend," said Hamilton. "We have consistently struggled coming out for the second half in games for probably 5-6 games now and tonight it caught up to us in a big way. We struggled to end the first half but lost the first four minutes of the second by 11 points. That has to change before Saturday." 

Randolph returns to ODAC play this coming Saturday as it hosts Averett.