Hornet men rally past WildCats in second half

Randolph College hosted Lynchburg College in a typical hard-fought, back-and-forth Old Dominion Athletic Conference men’s basketball game Wednesday that featured two ties and six lead changes in the second half. Thanks to a surge late in the second half, the Hornets pulled away for a 63-56 victory.

Lynchburg outscored the WildCats 19-10 over the final 6:40.

Lynchburg improved to 14-9 overall and 8-6 in the ODAC. The Hornets also picked up a key game in the standings over the WildCats (10-12, 5-8) and Washington & Lee (12-10, 5-8), for the conference’s fifth seed, which earns a first round bye in the tournament.

"Anytime you can win in this league it is big," LC coach Hilliary Scott said. "We understood this was going to be a street fight with two teams competing hard and it was fun."

RC is currently tied with the Generals for the sixth seed. It leads Emory & Henry and Eastern Mennonite, both 4-9 in the ODAC, by a game. The sixth, seventh and eight seeds will host a first round tournament game.

"We knew this was an important one, they are all," RC coach Clay Nunley said. "We led the majority of the game so it will sting for a little bit, but the reality is we have to shake it off move on. We’ve got another game on Saturday."

Randolph came out bombing away from the 3-point line in the first half. Five of the WildCats’ 12 first-half field goals were from deep as Randolph shot 45.5 percent from behind the arc and 57.1 percent from the field.

But despite its sharp shooting, RC took just a 30-29 lead into the locker room. The WildCats still held a narrow lead at 46-42 with 11:19 to play when Lynchburg made its move. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Xavier Parham and Manny Hernandez put LC up 50-48 and Hornets never looked back.

Lynchburg switched from its usual man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone and Randolph just couldn’t find the range. The WildCats went 0-for-8 from behind the 3-point line over the last 11 minutes.

"We didn’t shoot as well and didn’t do a good job attacking the zone," Nunley said. "Sometimes we forced some things. Sometimes we just missed open shots. We need to do better and I need to do better with (finding ways to attack the zone)."

Leading 52-50 with 4:28 to play, Scott turned to center Austin Chillemi to close out the game. The Hornets threw the ball into post on three straight possessions and the junior scored six points, stretching Lynchburg’s lead to 58-50 with 1:20 left.

"We ran a set play for him and he got us one (basket) so we decided to go to him again," Scott said. "I thought that was the difference down the stretch. It is tough when a game comes down to a couple of possessions."

Chillemi had a game-high 20 points, including eight of the final 11 points Lynchburg scored in the game.

"It is always good to beat your rival," Chillemi said. "They are a great team and we knew it was going to be a dog fight. We made a few baskets there at the end to take care of the game."

Parham added 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals. Hernandez chipped in 11 points, five rebounds and three blocks.

"Austin is a good player," Nunley said. "The bottom line is we have to find ways to get a stop there and we didn’t."

Colton Hunt had a team-high 19 points for Randolph. He also had six rebounds, six assists and two steals. Derrick Woods-Morrow added 17 points and eight rebounds. Mike Ehilegbu finished with 17 points.