The Roanoke College men’s basketball team saw their season come to an end with a heart-breaking loss to Division III’s second ranked team Saturday night. The Maroons dropped an 83-81 overtime decision to Emory University on the Eagles home floor in Atlanta, GA.
Roanoke earned a spot in the NCAA tournament by winning the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament a week prior, and the Maroons were placed in the four team first round event hosted by Emory. The Maroons drew Rhodes College of Tennessee for the Friday night game and took an 88-84 win to advance.
The game with Rhodes was tied at 57-57 with 12 minutes remaining and it was tight down the stretch. A Patrick Clevenger three pointer from the corner put RC ahead 80-75 with just 1:41 remaining, then Jackson Bell nailed another deep ball, his fifth of the game, to give the Maroons an 85-79 lead with 35.4 seconds left. Roanoke iced the game from the free throw line, sinking 13 of its last 14 attempts from the charity stripe.
Bell led Roanoke against Rhodes with 28 points. Marcus Morgan had 14 points and seven rebounds and Clevenger finished with 10 points, five boards and three assists.
With the win the Maroons advanced to Saturday’s game against Emory, who had won their opening round game over the University of Mississippi for Women. The Eagles came into the game at 23-3, ranked second in the nation in D-3 and playing on their home floor. However, the Maroons weren’t intimidated after knocking off Randolph-Macon, who was ranked number one in D-3 at the time, in the ODAC tournament.
Roanoke jumped off to a quick start and led 55-48 at the half. Emory scored the first six points after the break but Bell stopped the run with a three pointer. The two defenses came up big at the end of regulation, allowing no points from the 3:22 mark until 1.3 seconds left when Ryan Truitt was fouled with Roanoke trailing 75-74 and 1.3 seconds on the clock. Truitt hit the first free throw to tie the game but couldn’t drain the game winner, forcing overtime.
The extra period was tight to the end. Bell’s jumper with 27 seconds remaining in OT put the Maroons up 81-80, but Emory’s Ethan Fauss connected on a three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining and blocked a Maroon three-point attempt as the game clock ran down to seal the win.
Morgan finished with 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals for the Maroons while Bell had 20 points. Porter Stanley finished with 11 points and six rebounds and Grant Hamilton also scored 11.
With the loss the Maroons finished the season at 23-7. Roanoke won the program’s first conference title since 1999-20 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year.
The Maroons will graduate a strong senior class, including Morgan, Clevenger, Stanley and Zach Rosenthal. Bell, the top scorer on the team, returns along with starters Caleb Franze and Gavin O’Malley, who were the third and fourth leading scorers behind Bell and Morgan.
