North Tidewater News

Second-Ranked Randolph-Macon Holds Off Fifth-Ranked Captains, 64-59, in Front of Capacity Crowd

 Randolph-Macon College and Christopher Newport University, two teams ranked in the top five in the country, battled Wednesday night at Crenshaw Gymnasium in front of a capacity crowd of 1,200. The second-ranked Yellow Jackets defeated the fifth-ranked Captains, 64-59, in a game that most certainly  lived up to its pre-game billing. R-MC won its 12th straight game, and 57th consecutive home game, by out-scoring CNU in the second half, 42-34. The Captains, now 15-3, had a six-game winning streak snapped.

Christopher Newport led at halftime, 25-22, and the back-and-forth battle of top-five programs featured eight lead changes and was tied four times. Junior All-American Jahn Hines led the Captains with 26 points, while junior Trey Barber recorded a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Randolph-Macon, now 14-1, was led by senior Miles Mallory who also registered a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

The Captains pushed the lead from three to seven in the opening minute of the second half, 29-22, but the Yellow Jackets bounced back and out-scored CNU, 23-15, over the next 11 minutes to move in front, 45-44, with 8:03 remaining. Randolph-Macon broke a tie with a bucket with 6:05 to play, 48-46, and never trailed again. Down the stretch, R-MC surged ahead by as many as eight in the final minute on the way to the five-point final verdict.

Points were hard to come by in the paint, as the teams combined to record 13 blocked shots on the night. The two big men accounted for nine with Mallory rejecting five and Barber posting four swats. CNU out-rebounded R-MC, 38-36, and also shot a higher percentage from the field (40 to 38 percent). Randolph-Macon's defense, though, was stifling...holding the Captains to a season-low 59 points. CNU had been averaging 81 points per game, and had previously scored at least 70 in all 17 games.

Hines' big night saw him make ten of 22 shots from the field and also pull down eight rebounds. His 26 points marked the tenth time this season he has led the Captains in scoring.

Randolph-Macon, the National Champions in Division III last season, had two other players reach double figures behind Mallory as junior Daniel Mbangue scored 15 and senior Josh Talbert added 12. 

"That was a really competitive college basketball game," Head 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 and now we don't have much time to reflect on it with two big road games coming up this weekend."

Christopher Newport had won eight of the last nine meetings with Randolph-Macon prior to Wednesday night's defeat. CNU handed the Yellow Jackets their only loss of the season last season in late November at the Freeman Center.

The Captains travel to the Boston area this weekend for two games beginning Saturday afternoon at Bridgewater State. Tip-off time is set for 3:00 p.m. in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. CNU will then play at Eastern Nazarene in Quincy, Massachusetts, on Monday afternoon in a 2:00 p.m. tip-off.

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