For Immediate Release – 1/27/11 - #161

Randolph Men's Hoops Pulls Out 55-50 Win Over Guilford College

                LYNCHBURG, VA – The Randolph College men's basketball team trailed by as much as 13 points in the second half but battled back to knock off Guilford College 55-50 in a thrilling Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) contest from PER Thursday evening.

                The WildCats (13-4/7-2 ODAC) trailed by 13 points with 18:52 left in the second half, and stilled found themselves behind by 10 at 37-27 with 12:45 on the game clock. Randolph scored the game's next seven points to cut the deficit to three at 37-34 with 10:15 left on a free throw from Derrick Woods-Morrow (Greensboro, NC/NE Guilford).

                Guilford (12-7/6-4 ODAC) edged its lead back out to seven with 4:24 left in the game on a jumper by Martin Stephenson as the shot clock ran down, but again the WildCats rallied. With the score 48-42 with 3:35 left in the contest, the WildCat defense held Guilford without a field goal, outscoring its visitors 13-2 down the stretch. The run was highlighted by a huge trifecta by sophomore Cameron Colquitt (Mechanicsville, VA/Atlee).

                With 1:17 left in the ballgame, and coming out of a timeout, the WildCats took their first lead since midway through the first half on a lay-up from Woods-Morrow, getting a great assist from Pete Hamilton (Roanoke, VA/Cave Spring). The WildCats got a stop on their next possession, and after each team hit a pair of free throws, the score became 51-50 with 16 seconds left.

                Sophomore Colton Hunt (Buford, GA/Smoky Mountain) was fouled and calmly hit both shots from the line, pushing the lead back up to three. Sophomore guard Josh Pittman missed a tying three-point attempt for Guilford, and senior Caleb Pearson (Franklin, VA/Southampton Academy) sealed the game from the line. The win was the first ever over the Quakers, as Guilford came into the ball game with a 4-0 record over Randolph previously.

                The first half was a two-sided affair, as the WildCats charged out of the game but GC controlled the second half. Randolph led by as much as 10 in the first stanza at 16-6, but scored four points over the last 11 minutes of the half to trail 29-20 at the half.

                Hunt finished with a team-high 14 points for the WildCats, who shot 38 percent from the floor, their second-worst shooting night of the season. Junior Malcolm Nelson scored nine of his 11 points in the second half, while Woods-Morrow had seven points and four boards. Sophomore Dylan Shiflett (Virginia Beach, VA/Cape Henry) posted a game-high seven rebounds for Randolph.

                Pittman led all scorers with 16 points, but he was just four-of-14 from the floor, missing five of his six shots from deep. Gabriel Lowder added eight points for Guilford, which shot 47.5 percent (19-40) from the field, but turned it over 21 times to Randolph's 12. Stephenson, Justin Stafford and Tobi Akinsola all had six points in the loss for GC.

                Randolph will head out on the road on Saturday afternoon to take on the Tigers of Hampden-Sydney College at 2 p.m. in Kirby Gymnasium.