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| Miles Mallory led Randolph-Macon with 19 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots. Randolph-Macon athletics photo |
No. 2 R-MC held home court against No. 5 CNU; No. 3 Mount Union survived Marietta; while ranked teams WPI, UW-La Crosse and Calvin each got key road wins, Calvin's a blowout of archrival Hope. Plus, No. 18 Ohio Northern got a win in the closing seconds against No. 7 Baldwin Wallace in Wednesday's women's action.
Randolph-Macon shook off poor first-half shooting and the No. 2 Yellow Jackets got past fifth-ranked Christopher Newport 64-59 in a non-conference contest. The Captains (15-3) expanded a three-point halftime lead to seven early in the second half and repeated it at 35-28 when Trey Barber made a layup with 16:35 to play. Randolph-Macon (14-1) tied it with a Daniel Mbangue free throw with 6:37 left and never trailed again, as Mbangue got an offensive rebound and got fouled with 3:44 left, hitting both free throws to give Macon a 54-48 lead. The Yellow Jackets hit their foul shots down the stretch, part of a 16-for-20 shooting night from the line in the second half, and held on to win 64-59.
"Coming out of halftime, one foul, just felt like we were taking the shots they were giving us," said Randolph-Macon coach Josh Merkel. "We just needed to stay more aggressive, go at their chest, get cutting, attack that paint, and don't settle. That's what we talked about. We're not a team that goes to the free throw line very much but I loved our aggressiveness, loved how Miles (Mallory) played late. Just really proud of our guys.
"That was a really competitive college basketball game," CNU coach John Krikorian said. "I thought we did a lot of good things, but certainly had some defensive lapses in the second half that allowed them to get out in front of us. I liked the way we battled."
In one key sequence, with Macon ahead by four and just under a minute left, Mallory pinned a CNU shot against the backboard for one of his blocked shots. After a R-MC timeout, Mallory got a feed from Josh Talbert and buried a three from the top of the arc to provide the dagger with 37 seconds left.
Mallory had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. His five blocked shots give him 231 for his career, leaving him five short of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference record set by Ben Strong, who had 236 for Guilford from 2004 to 2008.
Marietta's comeback bid fell just short as the Pioneers lost at No. 3 ranked Mount Union by the score of 73-71 in Ohio Athletic Conference men's basketball action. Jeffrey Mansfield converted an old-fashioned three-point play with 2:38 left in the game giving the Purple Raiders a 14-point lead, 67-53. That's when the Pioneers (9-5, 4-3) went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 69-65 with 48 seconds left, capped by a Cooper Parrott 3-pointer.
Christian Parker converted one of two free throws for Mount Union (13-1, 6-1). Marietta pushed the ball up the court and Jake Singleton hit a jumper and was fouled. He sank the free throw cutting the Purple Raider to two, 70-68, with 33 seconds on the clock. The Pioneers fouled Mansfield and he hit both free throws. Parrott connected on his second 3-pointer in the final minutes of the game to get Marietta within a point, 72-71. Once again Mansfield was fouled, and he made one of two attempts with 20 seconds left, but Marietta missed on two attempts in the final seconds, one a full-court heave after Mansfield missed two free throws.
Aidan Callahan, Brett Marelli and Donovan Sevilla all reached double figures in scoring and WPI held its third consecutive conference opponent to under 50 points as the Engineers knocked off host Babson 61-49. WPI, ranked 16th in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25, has won three in a row since losing to No. 1 St. Joseph (Conn.) and ups its record to 11-2 on the season and 3-0 in conference play. Babson slips to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in NEWMAC play.
Hope College installed a brand-new scoreboard at DeVos Fieldhouse, but waited more than 10 minutes of the first half of its rivalry game before it could register a point on it. Calvin was dominant from start to finish in an 81-49 win in front of an announced crowd of 3,329 at Hope in the 208th playing of The Rivalry.
Calvin (11-3, 3-0 MIAA) took control early and never looked back, out-scoring the Flying Dutchmen 45-13 in an opening half that included a 20-0 run that spanned more than 10 minutes. The second half was more of the same, as the Knights never allowed the lead to get lower than 27 points en route to the most lopsided win in the rivalry since 1977. Uchenna Egekeze finished 9-for-9 from the field and scored a game-high 23 points.
St. Olaf snapped crosstown-rival Carleton's seven-game winning streak with an 82-74 road victory over the first-place Knights at West Gym. St. Olaf (8-5, 4-4 MIAC) shot better than 50.0 percent in both halves and hit at a 53.4 percent rate (31-for-58) for the game on its way to winning at West Gym for the second consecutive season. The Oles led for 39:06 and trailed for just 26 seconds to hand Carleton (11-2, 6-2 MIAC) just its second loss of the season. Connor Martin led four Oles in double figures with 21 points, seven assists, three steals, and two blocked shots, shooting 7-for-14 from the field and 7-for-10 from the free throw line.
Tate Ivanyo knocked down a 26-foot buzzer beater as Anderson remained unbeaten in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play, sinking Defiance by a score of 91-88 in double overtime. Jordan Gadis provided a layup to put Anderson (9-5, 7-0) ahead 87-85 with 48 seconds left in the second overtime and the Ravens had a chance to put the game away at the foul line but struggled. Gadis missed two foul shots for Anderson, but the Ravens the offensive rebound, and Alex Hunt made one of out two to make it 88-85. Marrell Jordan answered with a long 3-pointer with five seconds left to tie the game for Defiance (5-9, 0-7) nefore Ivanyo's heroics.
"There's nobody who deserves to make a shot like that more than Tate Ivanyo," said Anderson coach Carter Collins. "He is the ideal college basketball player off the court, and he's not half bad on the court, either."
Hood's Christopher Smalls and Trumaine Strickland hit 3-pointers in the final 36 seconds to erase a four-point deficit as the Blazers escaped Mary Washington with a 65-63 win. Hood held a 13-point lead in the second half before the Eagles went on a 17-0 run. Greg Rowson was fouled but only made the first free throw to make it 63-59 with 1:06 on the clock. Dorian Davis cleared the offensive glass, but Rowson was off the mark from beyond the arc. Linton grabbed the defensive board and found Smalls open for a 3-pointer to cut it to a one-point deficit with 36 seconds to go.
Wednesday's women's action
Abi Akamine scored just ahead of the buzzer to lead No. 18 Ohio Northern to a thrilling 53-51 victory over No. 7 Baldwin Wallace, handing the Yellow Jackets their first loss. Brynn Serbin scored a game-high 21 points and Kristen Luersman added 15 points and a team-high six rebounds for ONU (13-1, 7-0 OAC).
Mackenzie Suprano nailed a 3-pointer with 1:48 left in the game, the only triple for ONU in the contest, to give the hosts a 51-50 lead. BW had two chances to take the lead at the line in the final seconds, but Irwin missed two free throws with 11 seconds left and Izzy Andrews made one of two to tie the game 51-all with 3.9 seconds to go. A timeout gave the Polar Bears the ball at midcourt. Akamine then caught the inbounds pass at the top of the key, drove to her right down the lane and finished the driving layup just ahead of the final buzzer to give ONU the win.
No. 13 UW-Whitewater upped its conference record to 4-1 and dropped UW-Oshkosh to 1-4 in the WIAC, as the Warhawks defeated the Titans, 66-56. UW-Whitewater closed the first quarter on a 16-2 run, built a 20-point halftime lead, and coasted from there. Four Warhawk starters scored double figures led by Kacie Carollo who racked up 18 points and 15 rebounds.
UW-La Crosse topped UW-Stout, 72-54, and pulled the Blue Devils into a three-way tie for first with UW-Whitewater and No. 14 UW-Eau Claire. Kyah Steiner had a double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) for UW-La Crosse which has won six straight and is one game back of the tri-leaders.
No. 22 Loras hit 10 three-pointers and the Duhawks clobbered crosstown rival Dubuque, 63-39. Cierra Bachmann scored 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting for Loras (12-3, 5-1 ARC). The Duhawks remain one game behind Wartburg in the ARC standings since the Knights took care of Coe, 78-58.
Lexi Dellinger added another honor to her remarkable career at Anderson by becoming the program's all-time scoring leader in the Ravens' 87-73 win over Defiance. Dellinger scored 37 points giving 1,840 in her career, and five of those 37 came in the Ravens' game-clinching run.
Kaycee Gierczak's bucket with 1:28 to play proved to be the game winner for St. Norbert, as the Green Knights defeated Wisconsin Lutheran, 61-58. St. Norbert (11-3, 7-0 NACC) converted 24 Wisconsin Lutheran turnovers into 19 points.
Greenville closed its game at Webster on a 6-0 run, and the Panthers dealt the Gorlocks a rare conference loss, 73-72. After Nysa Gilchrist gave Webster a 72-67 lead with 1:44 to play, Madelyn Stephen scored on Greenville’s next three possessions. Her free throws with 22 seconds gave Greenville (10-4, 3-0 SLIAC) the lead and Webster missed the potential go-ahead shot with four seconds left. Webster (12-2, 2-1 SLIAC) lost its first conference game since the finale of the 2020-21 COVID-shortened season.
Kate Fitzpatrick beat the buzzer for Lebanon Valley, and the Flying Dutchmen beat Widener, 61-59. Fitzpatrick's acrobatic, off-balance shot hit off the glass and dropped through the net and sent Lebanon Valley to its fourth victory in conference this season.
The Grinnell women put up a big score on Wednesday night as the Pioneers scored 33 points in the fourth quarter to surge past Monmouth 87-73. Trailing 36-29 at the half, Grinnell scored 25 in the third and surged to a school-record single-quarter point total in the fourth. Erin Lillis scored a game-high 34 points as the Pioneers improved to 6-8, 3-4 in the Midwest Conference.