Coming into this season, Randolph-Macon freshmen Sarah Parsons, Kellie Cortina and Caroline Young weren’t really certain how they would fit into the playing scheme on a Yellow Jacket women’s basketball team. With several top returning players from last year’s ODAC championship squad, the trio was not sure what their role would be.

  “It takes a little longer just because the other girls have played together for a while,” Cortina said. “So slowly I’m finding I’m feeling more comfortable on the court and playing with them and I think good things will continue to happen.”

  “It’s really tough your first year and the first two months have been challenging,” Parson’s said. “But you’ve got to learn quick and play your game.”

  Despite returning a solid core, through the first seven games R-MC (3-4, 2-2 ODAC) has struggled to find its identity. But on Tuesday night they may have come across the correct formula in a 76-48 ODAC romp of Randolph College that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicates.

  “We have been working on executing and when you stop and think about it we did execute better,” said R-MC head coach Carroll LaHaye. “We’re not there yet. We’re not totally precise on everything we do but I was pleased with our effort.”

  The difference comes from how her freshman class is fitting in. LaHaye was uncertain how much she could depend on her newcomers this season and therefore placed the bulk of responsibilities on her upper classmen. After seven games, the freshmen showed they’re fully capable of carrying their weight.

  “I think in the beginning of the year we were really relying on our upper class players or returning players,” LaHaye said. “We just made a conscious decision to get some other people in there and get them some time and tonight was a good test for us to be able to do that and it showed. I think some people really stepped up.”

  Against Randolph (2-5, 0-4), Parsons, Cortina and Young scored a combined 39 points while shooting nearly 52 percent from the floor. They teamed up to pull down 18 rebounds, dished out three assists, came away with six steals and two blocks while only committing two turnovers.
  Parsons, who got her first career start against Randolph, came into the contest as the clear leader among the freshman trio. In her first three games as a collegian, the J.R. Tucker graduate scored a total of 19 points. In the next three games she has averaged 22.6 points per game which not only leads the Yellow Jackets and is tops among league freshmen, but is four points per game more than ODAC leading scorer Jessica Mullen of Bridgewater has averaged this season. The numbers from the last three games alone would place Parsons fourth in D-III and tie her with VCU’s Courtney Hunt at eighth among Division I players.

  Parson’s admits she’s even surprised herself this season. “Definitely,” she said. “I really didn’t expect to do all that I’ve done this early in the season and starting tonight was definitely something I wasn’t expecting.”

  Parsons currently ranks third in the ODAC in scoring, 3-point percentage, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and 19th in steals. But probably most surprising is the fact that the 5-4 Parsons averages 3.4 rebounds per game as well. Against Randolph, virtually every one of her rebounds came among the trees under the basket.

  “She’s very aggressive and she’s strong,” LaHaye said.

  Likewise, for Parson’s lack of height is clearly not a setback on offense. “Sometimes the size is to my advantage because if they’re out on the wing guarding me I can just go right by them and get an easy layup,” she said.

  Parson sees speed as her greatest asset. “Definitely my quickness which benefits me on both ends but I think more offensively than defensively and just out-hustling other players trying to get rebounds or steals.” 

  Against Randolph, Parsons, without a doubt, turned in the best period of her young career shooting 62 percent from the floor to score 17 of her game high 21 points, pull down six rebounds, get four steals and have no turnovers in the first half alone. Parson’s time on the floor? Fifteen minutes.

  “She had a great game,” LaHaye said of Parsons. “She has really come into her own and she’s just very quick…She just finds away to do the most out there that she can it it’s really paying off for her.”

  As a team, the Wildcats scored only 16 points in the half due to a smothering Yellow Jacket defense that limited the visitors to 20 percent shooting.
  R-MC ran out to an 18-2 lead midway through the first before the Wildcats went on improbable 10-0 run over the next three minutes. Randolph then scored only two more points in the half until Dyllan Peterson connected on a jumper in the final second to trim the Yellow Jacket lead to 43-16 at the break.

  LaHaye was even perplexed by the scoring burst in the middle of the half. “I don’t know if it was the combinations we had in there or not,” she said.

  In the second half Cortina took over the leading role to become the game’s second highest scorer with 14 points, two assists, eight rebounds, one block, one steal and one turnover in 28 minutes of action.

  Parson’s first half play opened the floor for her teammates. “They started guarding me a little bit tougher and just dish it off and she’s there to hit the open three,” she said. 

  “I guess I took advantage of an opportunity,” Cortina said. “Coach always says you have to be an offensive threat so I guess I finally took it, understood it and applied it to the game as best I could.”

  “Kellie has been working hard on her game,” LaHaye said. “We knew what she was capable of doing when we recruited her it’s just in the beginning of the year she was a little timid, not quite sure of herself. So we told her she just needed to get in there and just play, just relax and let the game come to her and I think she did a good job of that tonight.”

  Likewise, in 17 minutes of playing time, Young added four points, three rebounds, one block and no turnovers.

  Leading by 27 at the break, R-MC stretched the margin to 36 nine minutes out of the locker room but the Yellow Jackets gradually let Randolph come back to only outscore the visitors by one in the second half.

  “I just don’t think that we’re there yet,” LaHaye said. “When they made those runs at us we were just content because we had such a big lead. Whereas in previous games against better competitors we haven’t reacted as well, so I’d say it’s the same old, same old.”

  Senior Maggie Roy scored 12 points and Taylor Wieczorek pulled down 10 rebounds for the Yellow Jackets. Randolph was led by 12 points from Lauren French.
  With the win, LaHaye’s career win total moved to 497. R-MC’s next four games are on the road and does not return home until a Jan. 7 matchup against Bridgewater.

Randolph…..... ................16 32 - 48
Randolph-Macon…........ 43 33 - 76
RANDOLPH – Lowry 9, Johnson 0, Tyler 6, Russell 2, French 12, Peterson 2, Thompson 0, Bouchard 8, Bishop 5, Hoover 2, Hamlett 2.
R-MC – Brown 6, Asay 0, Wieczorek 8, Roy 12, Parsons 21, Cortina 14, Young 4, Phelps 5, Mills 0, Sharman 6.
Highlights: R-MC – Parsons 5 steals, 7 rebounds, Wieczorek 10 rebounds.