Roanoke College men’s basketball team was looking to be the ODAC angler Saturday afternoon at the Bast Center.
Unfortunately for the Maroons, the big fish got away in the form of Marlins junior guard Khory Moore.
Riding Moore’s game-high 31 points that included 11-of-18 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 from behind-the-arc, Virginia Wesleyan slipped past Roanoke 73-72 in front of a sizable crowd in Salem.
While Moore’s shooting and driving was key, it was his free throw with 4.5 seconds remaining that broke a 72-72 tie.
Roanoke had one last chance, but Maroon sophomore Joey Miller raced up court where he was stripped of the ball near mid court as the final horn sounded.
It had been an uphill battle most of the afternoon for Roanoke as Moore proved to be a huge thorn, Roanoke was uncharacteristically cold from long range and the Marlins dominated on the offensive boards, often getting second and third chances off misses.
“They got 17 more shots than us, many on second and third chances,” Roanoke head coach Page Moir noted after the game. “You’ve got to step up and take care of the glass. It came down to them having 25 offensive rebounds. Still, we got it to one possession at the end. We need to win some of those.”
Virginia Wesleyan led 31-17 in the first half and still was up 38-26 before Roanoke finished with an 8-2 run to head to the locker room down 40-34. At that point, Moore had already canned 16 points for the Marlins.
Roanoke kept chipping away and took their first lead since early in the game when John Fitchett scored on a put-back to give the Maroons a 48-47 advantage.
Wesleyan went up 58-51 on a Moore trey midway through the second half, but three straight baskets by Maroon senior Carter Wright (Hidden Valley HS), the last coming with 7:22 remaining, closed the Roanoke deficit to 62-60.
The Marlins moved ahead 72-66 on a pair of free throws by Khalil Barnette with 1:41 left, before Miller scored 6 straight points for Roanoke, the last three coming off a twisting layup with a pair of Marlin defenders hanging on his back, and the subsequent free throw from the harm that completed the old-fashion 3-[point play.
Virginia Wesleyan called a time out and set up the final play to Moore that led to the winning free throw.
“We knew we wanted to get the ball to our play maker,” Marlin head coach Dave Macedo said of Moore outside the Wesleyan locker room. “At the end, we were able to force the turnover.”
“Roanoke plays at a high level and Page does a great job with his team,” Macedo added. “They beat us at our place earlier, so we knew we had to come out with a lot of energy. The key was Khory’s play and our whole team being so active on the boards.”
Roanoke, which creates its offense from long distance, was only 5-of-21 from behind-the-arc, including 1-of-11 in the second half.
Roanoke was led in scoring by Miller and John Caldwell, each getting 14 points. Fitchett followed with 12, while Wright and Cameron Smith netted 10 points apiece.
“We did a lot of good things defensively and forced 17 turnovers,” Moir pointed out. “We’ll get the shooting right. We’ve got two straight road games and we’re undefeated on the road.”
Bill Turner