Thirteen proved to be the unluckiest of numbers for the Roanoke College man’s basketball team Wednesday night at the Bast Center.
Riding a twelve game winning streak, the Maroons couldn’t pull off number thirteen on the thirteenth of the month as the visitors from Hampden-Sydney held on down the stretch for the 100-92 ODAC win.
Give credit to the Tigers’ hot shooting, and run-and-gun style that made the Hampden-Sydney win more a result of performance than luck.
Coming into the contest averaging over 101 points per game, and having won a pair of tough roads tests in the last week at W&L and Virginia Wesleyan, Roanoke was ranked #20 in this week’s d3hoops.com Top-25 poll.
But, Hampden-Sydney turned out to be the team that cracked the century mark with a strong offensive performance that saw six Tigers score in double figures.
“Today was a good day for us,” Hampden-Sydney head coach Dee Vick noted afterward. “I’ve got to credit our bottom 6 or 7 players for trying to duplicate Roanoke’s offense in practice. What Roanoke does is hard to defense and play against. They are hard to guard and we were fortunate to outscore them. In practice we really struggled against it, but it paid off today. We did a good job of sharing the basketball and taking good shots”
“We’re the ones that want to score 100 points each game,” Roanoke senior guard and Hidden Valley High School product Carter Wright said. “It was a hard-fought game, but we didn’t play good defense tonight. It’s back to work tomorrow.”
It was an offensive showdown from the outset, as both teams enjoyed five-point leads in the first half. Roanoke led 18-13 before the Tigers went on a 16-6 run to go up 29-24 just past the midway point. The Maroons bounced back to knot things at 31 and led 41-36 after a dish-and-score to John Caldwell that propelled Roanoke to a 45-42 advantage at the break.
The game was nip-and-tuck for the first 13 minutes of the second half, and tied for the last time at 76 with seven minutes left.
Hampden-Sydney then gained separation with back-to-back three-pointers from Mitch Owens and Jake Duncan to go up 82-76, and Roanoke got no closer than five points the rest of the way.
“Hampden-Sydney shot the ball very well and played a great game,” Maroon senior forward Cameron Smith said inside the Roanoke locker room. “They came to play. Tonight was their night.”
Junior guard John Fitchett finished with a game-high 17 points for the Maroons, including 3-of-5 from behind-the arc. Smith canned 15 for Roanoke, with Wright adding 14 and freshman John Caldwell pitching in 11.
Roanoke hit 11 three-pointers for the game and was 17-of-21 from the charity stripe.
The Tigers were 14-for-30 from long range, which countered a lackluster 10-of-20 performance from the line.
“192 points was great for the fans,” Vick pointed out. “Page (Roanoke head coach Page Moir) has done a great job with his team. They will be tough down the stretch.”
Bill Turner
