Controversy and disappointment went hand in hand for No. 7 Randolph-Macon last Wednesday night when No. 9 Virginia Wesleyan handed the Yellow Jackets their second straight loss, 59-57.

  Trailing by two points with just under two minutes to play, R-MC (4-2, 0-1 ODAC) looked to be in the driver’s seat to pull out a comeback win over the visiting Marlins (6-0, 1-0).

  After trailing for a majority of the game, the Jackets suddenly found an offensive spark. Over a five minute period R-MC went on a 7-1 run in the low scoring affair, to battle back and tie the game at 55.

  With 2:04 to play, the Marlins retook the lead on a put back jumper from Tre’ Ford but R-MC still appeared to be in control.

  Even though Calvin Crosky missed what would have been a Jacket go-ahead three from the left corner, teammate Danny Jones pulled down the rebound in perfect position to score or be sent to the foul line where he was 4-for-4 on the evening.

  With the ball in shooting position over his head, Jones went up for a put back but his left forearm was grabbed by the Marlin’s Donald Vaughn and the ball came loose.

  The home crowd exploded in anger when no foul was called but Croskey grabbed the ball and fed it to Eric Pugh, who drove into the crowd and ended up on the floor after his missed shot.

  Again no foul was called as the Marlin’s corralled the rebound and headed up court.

  It was too much for normally stoic R-MC head coach Nathan Davis who raged on the sideline drawing a technical; the first of his basketball career as a player or coach at any level, high school through college.

  Chris Teasley made both technical free throws for a 59-55 Marlins’ lead but Pugh trimmed the margin back to two on a layup with :57 to play.

  The Yellow Jackets got one more shot after a defensive stop but Pugh’s running jumper in the lane was cleanly blocked by Vaughn and Giggetts missed on a desperation shot at the buzzer.

  “He didn’t call a foul, it’s what he (the official) saw,” a much calmer Davis said following the game; not only upset at the non-call but also with his own reaction. “I can’t let myself get in a situation where they can make that call against me either. It’s just the way the situation is. It happened.”

  For much of the game, R-MC appeared to be out of sync offensively. Even though they shot 47.8 percent in the first half, they trailed by five at the break, largely due to the Marlin’s 52 percent shooting including 3-of-6 beyond the arc.

  “We had trouble all night getting into a flow, just getting the ball in to start our offense,” Davis said. “It’s been two, two and half games now we haven’t shot the ball really well. Some of it is we’re not getting the looks as cleanly as we want, so we’re rushing the shooting a little bit. We’re not getting a good rhythm on offense. A lot of it comes back to us having trouble initiating, getting started.”

  Coming out in the second half the margin widened to nine, 44-35 with 14 minutes to play.

  But following a Davis timeout the Jackets came alive with an aggressive zone defense to effectively shut down the Marlins and get back in the game.

  “Early on we weren’t doing a good job of covering what they were trying to do,” Davis said. “But we were able to call timeout and get it straight and did a much better job.”

  A Giggetts jumper was followed by a defensive rebound and breakaway dunk from Adam Desgain. Pugh scored on a plus-one field goal then added another short jumper.

  When Brandon Braxton swished a free throw with 10 minutes to play, R-MC held a 45-44 lead.

  But the Jackets missed four of their next five shots and the Marlins edged back in front to eventually set up the final dramatics.

  Pugh and Jordan Brown led the Jackets with 13 points each, while Braxton added 10.

  The Marlins were led by Vaughn and Chris Asorrga who each scored 14 points.

  Though R-MC fell into an early losing conference record, Davis pointed out there is still plenty of time to turn things around. “You don’t want to be 0-1 but the odds of somebody going undefeated are not high,” Davis said. “We’ve got a tough schedule and you work your way through it.

  “It’s early,” he said. “It’s a long season there’s lots of room to get better. We certainly have time to get better as the year moves on and we’ve got work on it.

  “We’re not happy about it,” Davis said. “We’re not happy about the way the last two games have gone but we’ve got to learn from it and move on.”
 
VIRGINIA WESLEYAN (7-0 / 1-0 ODAC) ASTORGA, Chris 5-9 1-4 14; VAUGHN, Donald 5-10 4-9 14; WOODMORE, DJ 5-7 0-0 12; FORD, Tre’ 2-6 2-2 6; TEASLEY, Chris 1-4 3-4 5; DAVIS, Rakeem 1-1 0-1 2; BURNS, Jason 1-5 0-0 2; CREW, Art 1-1 0-0 2; BROWN, Ali 1-1 0-0 2; HEARD, Colby 0-0 0-0 0; ROBERTS, Ed 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-45 10-20 59.
RANDOLPH-MACON (4-2 / 0-1 ODAC) PUGH, Eric 5-19 3-3 13; BROWN, Jordan 5-6 2-6 13; BRAXTON, Brandon 3-5 4-6 10; GIGGETTS, Lamar 3-4 0-0 6; DESGAIN, Adam 3-7 0-0 6; CROSKEY, Calvin 2-5 0-0 4; JONES, Danny 0-1 4-4 4; VOELKEL, Kevin 0-1 1-2 1; SCHEELER, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-48 14-21 57.

Virginia Wesleyan…... 32   27 -  59
Randolph-Macon….....27   30 -  57

3-point goals—Virginia Wesleyan 5-12 (ASTORGA, Chris 3-4; WOODMORE, DJ 2-2; FORD, Tre’ 0-2; TEASLEY, Chris 0-1; BURNS, Jason 0-2; ROBERTS, Ed 0-1), Randolph-Macon 1-10 (BROWN, Jordan 1-1; DESGAIN, Adam 0-1; CROSKEY, Calvin 0-2; PUGH, Eric 0-6).
Rebounds—Virginia Wesleyan 32 (VAUGHN, Donald 8), Randolph-Macon 27 (DESGAIN, Adam 6). Assists—Virginia Wesleyan 6 (VAUGHN, Donald 2; WOODMORE, DJ 2), Randolph-Macon 7 (VOELKEL, Kevin 2). Total fouls—Virginia Wesleyan 21, Randolph-Macon 17.
Technical fouls—Virginia
Wesleyan-None, Randolph-Macon-TEAM. A-711