WildCats to Face R-MC in First-Ever Title Game Appearance

SALEM, Va. --- The Randolph College men’s basketball team earned its first ever appearance in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament Championship game Saturday with a thrilling 80-76 victory over No. 10 Virginia Wesleyan College in semifinal action from the Salem Civic Center.

Randolph (18-9) will now move on to play Randolph-Macon College at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Salem Civic Center. The win also was the second-ever victory over a ranked opponent, as the first came earlier in the season at home against EMU.

Colton Hunt scored a game-high 25 points on nine-of-15 shooting, making all but one of his seven free throw attempts. No point was bigger than his last one, a free throw which extended the WildCat’s lead to four with six seconds left.

The Marlins (23-4) opened the game on an 8-0 run, as Chris Astorga buried a pair of three pointers. Randolph fought right back, scoring the next eight points, highlighted by back-to-back triples by Caleb Pearson and Pete Hamilton. 

The teams were tied again, this time at 14 with 8:39 left in the first half, before VWC took a five-point lead at 19-14. Randolph caught back up to even the game at 25, and finished the half on an 11-2 run which was capped by a 35-foot three from Hunt at the buzzer to lead 38-33.

The WildCats would up their lead to a game-high nine points at 46-37 with 16 minutes left in regulation. Up 48-40, the Marlins scored 13 of the game’s next 15 points to regain the lead at 53-50. After the score was tied at 59, the Randolph regained the advantage and led for the rest of regulation thanks to seven-of-eight shooting from the charity stripe during the last minute.

“All year long we have met and overcome the obstacles that have been presented to us, and today was another example of that over a great basketball team,” said ODAC Coach of the Year Clay Nunley . “It was a total team effort with contributions from our entire roster.”

Hamilton posted 21 points for the WildCats, making five-of-six from downtown and all four of his foul shouts. Pearson had 13 points and Derrick Woods-Morrow notched his sixth double-double of the year with 10 points while tying a season-high of 14 rebounds.

“It means everything to us seniors,” said Pearson following the win. “Coach (Nunley) has stressed to us all year that it is about team togetherness and it’s obvious that our team unity and discipline have been top notch so far. Winning it all would be a great way to go out and all of us have faith in each other to make it happen.”

Senior guard Timmy Clarke had an all-around good game, scoring six points to go with four boards, six assists and no turnovers. Randolph continued their hot shooting, making 50 percent (26-52) from the floor, 60 percent (9-15) from deep and 90.5 percent (19-21) percent from the line.

Astorga scored a team-best 21 points for VWC, while ODAC Freshman of the Year DJ Woodmore had 16 points, seven boards and four assists. Donald Vaughn had 12 points and eight rebounds, while Chris Teasley added 10 points. Virginia Wesleyan shot 42.2 percent (27-64) from the floor, knocking down 11 of their 26 three-point attempts.

This release is courtesy of the Randolph College sports information department.