Wood-Morrow hits 1,00th in Randolph win

Randolph College’s men’s basketball team picked up its third consecutive ODAC victory and, for the second time in seven days, had a player score their 1,000th career point in the WildCats’ 64-47 win over visiting Eastern Mennonite University on Saturday.

Randolph (10-11, 5-7 ODAC) moves into a tie for sixth place with Washington & Lee (12-9, 5-7). The top five finishers in the ODAC standing receive a first-round bye in the tournament and the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-place teams host first-round games.

Lynchburg College (13-9, 7-6) is fifth and the Royals (9-12, 4-8) are eighth. Emory & Henry (9-12, 3-9), Roanoke (6-15, 2-10) and Bridgewater (5-16, 2-10) are bringing up the rear.

Randolph has four regular-season games left, beginning with a home game against their cross-town rival Lynchburg on Wednesday.

“In our league things don’t get any easier,” WildCats coach Clay Nunley said. “We’ve got a good team coming in here on Wednesday and then another after that [Guilford] on Saturday, but I do like the way our guys have been playing the last two weeks.”

Randolph’s defense was the story Saturday, especially in the second half when the WildCats held EMU to just 17 points over the final 20 minutes.

“The last three games especially, we’ve done a nice job of not just being on defense, but playing defense,” Nunley said. “We are making teams earn their points and not giving away free ones. We are being be sound in what we are doing and that’s going to carry over into other games.”

The Royals shot just 28.1 percent from the field for the game and were just six of 25 from the field in the second half.

Randolph led for most of the game and took a 32-30 lead into halftime, but EMU’s Adam Burroughs drained a 3-pointer to open the second half and give the Royals their first lead since early in the game. It was also the last time EMU led.

RC’s Colton Hunt sparked a 17-6 run to close out the game by scoring eight of the next nine points, including back-to-back 3-pointers to give the WildCats a 13-point lead with 5:57 to play.

Derrick Woods-Morrow finished the game with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. The senior forward from Greensboro, N.C., became the second player in WildCats’ history to score a 1,000 points on a field goal early in the first half.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Woods-Morrow said. “To get this win and hold them to 47 points is just a great, great feeling. It feels great (getting to a 1,000 points). That’s a big milestone in every college basketball player’s career. What is greater for me today was getting the win.”

Hunt led all scorers with 22 points. He also had seven rebounds, three assists and six steals. Hunt, a junior guard from Whittier, N.C., was the first to reach 1,000 point plateau in the five-year history of the men’s program last Saturday in a 61-60 victory over Hampden-Sydney.

Lynchburg 66, Bridgewater 62

Austin Chillemi scored a game-high 20 points and had eight rebounds to lead the Hornets in the ODAC win.

 In the second half, LC opened held a large lead (59-46) at the 6:40 mark before the Eagles rallied. BC pulled to within two (64-62) after a pair of free throws from Tavis Stapleton. Xavier Parham made one free throw to put LC ahead by three with 29 seconds left and following a pair of missed free throws by the Eagles, Chillemi hit one of two from the free-throw line to seal the win.

Senior guard Tucker Lucas finished with 11 points.