The Roanoke College men’s basketball team is battling for position in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference standings with the post-season tournament just two weeks away. Coming into the week the Maroons were sixth place, just a game out of fourth a game ahead of eighth.
The Maroons came into the week at 7-5 in ODAC games and were scheduled to host Washington & Lee in a big game Wednesday. The Generals opened the week at 9-3 and ranked third in the ODAC. Salem’s last three games are at 3-10 Bridgewater, at 8-5 Lynchburg and home against 3-10 Randolph.
The Maroons didn’t do themselves any favors when they lost at last place Emory & Henry last week, 78-77, as the Wasps won a conference game for just the second time all season. However, the Maroons bounced back with an 84-76 win at Hampden-Sydney on Saturday, dropping the Tigers to 8-4 in the conference and pulling within a game of fourth place.
Roanoke used a 12-4 run that was capped by a Kasey Draper jumper that made the score 74-66 with 4:18 left to play in the ball game.The Maroons led 78-70 with 2:35 to play before the Tigers used four straight free-throws to cut the Maroon lead to 78-74 with 1:30 to go. That would be as close as Hampden-Sydney would get as Roanoke connected on six free-throws in the final 1:03 to seal the win.
Joining Draper in double-figures was Efosa Edosomwan with 18 points off the bench. Caleb Jordan had 16 points to go along with seven assists and Ethan Rohan grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.